New Delhi, July 16 (IANS) Shares of ICICI Lombard General Insurance tumbled nearly 15 per cent on Thursday in morning session after the company’s June quarter earnings missed market expectations, with profit hit by higher claims and additional reserve provisions.

As of 11:35 am, the stock fell as much as 14.86 per cent to a fresh 52-week low of Rs 1,544.40 on the BSE during early trade.

At the last count, it was trading at Rs 1,614.30, a decline of 11 per cent from the previous close of Rs 1,814.

The sharp fall came after the private sector general insurer reported a 46 per cent year-on-year decline in net profit to Rs 403.17 crore for the April-June quarter of FY27, compared with Rs 747.08 crore in the corresponding period last year.

The company attributed the decline to higher claims and a Rs 165-crore reserve provision for its motor third-party (Motor TP) portfolio.

The insurance firm also said it incurred two large fire losses amounting to Rs 63 crore during the quarter, which impacted its combined ratio by one percentage point.

In addition, a Supreme Court judgment had an adverse impact of 2.8 percentage points on the combined ratio. As a result, the combined ratio — a key measure of underwriting profitability — rose to 107.2 per cent in the June quarter from 102.9 per cent a year earlier.

However, losses in the fire portfolio are not expected to remain elevated and reiterated that the long-term growth outlook for the health insurance business remains strong, with retail health continuing to outpace group health, according to the management.

Apart from that, analysts at Motilal Oswal Financial Services downgraded the stock to ‘neutral’ from ‘buy’ following the weak quarterly performance.

Over the long term, the stock has underperformed, declining nearly 20 per cent over the past year and dropping more than 10 per cent in the last six months.

–IANS

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