The combined profit of non-life insurance sector declined by 17 percent to Rs 4.5 billion in the nine month period, ending September 30 as compared to Rs 5.4 billion in the same period last year.

"The 17 out of total 24 listed non-life insurance companies, representing 99 percent of the total market capitalisation, showed a decline of 17 percent mainly due to huge investment income booked by IGI Insurance in the same period of last year," analyst at JS Global Capital Limited Atif Malik said, and added that except for one timer, the sector's profits were up by an impressive 39 percent.

Total net premium of the sector soared by 12 percent and arrived at Rs 13.2 billion in the nine month period in 2007 against Rs 11.7 billion previously. However, this growth could not be translated into the underwriting profits due to the higher net claims, net commission and underwriting expenses, which rose by a respective 12 percent, eight percent and 21 percent to Rs 8.5 billion, Rs 0.9 billion and Rs 2.5 billion respectively.

As far as sector key ratios are concerned, claim ratio stood at 64 percent in this period, while expense ratio increased slightly as it stood at 19 percent as compared to 18 percent previously. Combined ratio (expense ratio + claim ratio) of the sector, on the other hand, stood at 84 percent which was up slightly higher expenses.