Chinese life insurance stocks were diluted this morning, with China Life Insurance (02628.HK) down 1.8 per cent at 11 yuan, 02601.HK down 2.3 per cent and 01336.HK down 5.1 per cent at 16.24 yuan. Daiwa recently released a report saying that the gross premiums of major listed mainland life insurance companies fell 1% in August and 1% year-on-year in the first eight months of this year, dragged down by the downturn in sales of protected products. In terms of individual life insurance stocks, China Life premiums rose 1.1 per cent year-on-year in August, compared with a 1.2 per cent year-on-year decline in Xinhua Insurance and 3.5 per cent year-on-year decline in Ping an Life Insurance of China Ping an (02318.HK). According to the bank's field survey, due to poor sales of protection products, the number of agents continued to decline in single digits every month (with the exception of Guoshou). The market is focused on the future, and the bank understands that listed insurance companies will launch new protection products in late 2022 and early 2023. Looking forward to the fourth quarter of this year, Daiwa expects the value of new business to improve year-on-year from a low base, and reducing customer incentives should also help. Daiwa said that the preferred choice for Chinese insurance stocks is still China property Insurance (02328.HK) and International Assurance (01299.HK). The bank believes that in the current macroeconomic context of China, the mainland life insurance sector has not yet reached an inflection point.