FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Allianz is a bright spot on the German stock market on Friday after its quarterly report. Around midday, the insurer's share price at the top of the Dax rose by 2.1 percent, while the leading index fell by 0.7 percent due to renewed interest rate concerns. The strength of Allianz was also reflected in the European sector index, which was a moderately positive exception. Munich Re shares also gained 0.5 percent in the Dax.

Severe storms had caused Allianz's profits to plummet in the third quarter. However, initial reactions showed that analysts had feared an even greater decline. Kamran Hossain from the bank JPMorgan rated the results as strong on a reported basis - with an operating profit above expectations. According to his colleague Philip Kett from Jefferies, the result is "all the more impressive when you consider that this was a quarter with above-average natural catastrophe losses".

Expert Hossain was also positively surprised by the solvency ratio. However, he pointed out that Allianz had not announced any further share buybacks. According to traders, however, this was not seriously expected. Allianz usually only announces new purchases once the previous ones have been completed. Analyst Thorsten Wenzel from DZ Bank believes it is possible that a new package will be announced in February with the annual figures.

Overall, the consequences of natural catastrophes cost the insurer almost 1.3 billion euros in the third quarter, almost four times as much as a year earlier. As a result, operating profit plummeted by 15 percent to 3.5 billion euros, while analysts had only expected 3.2 billion. In addition to a series of natural disasters in Europe, he also attributed the sharp drop in earnings to the sale of business units in Lebanon.

According to Wenzel, the targeted operating result for the current year nevertheless remains well within reach. CEO Oliver Bäte believes that Allianz is on course to achieve an operating profit of between 13.2 and 15.2 billion euros this year as planned. After the first nine months, it is just under 11 billion.

Due to the positive share price development at the end of the week, the Allianz share price reached its highest level since the end of September. With an annual gain of 13 percent, Allianz is one of the 15 best stocks in the DAX. Despite its defensive characteristics, the share therefore outperformed more than half of the index members in 2023. With a market capitalization of around 90 billion euros, the Allianz share is one of the five largest DAX stocks./tih/stw/jha/