[SINGAPORE] Insurer Great Eastern on Thursday (Oct 30) posted a net profit of S$372 million for its third quarter ended September, 36 per cent up from S$273.4 million in the year-ago period.

The improvement was driven mainly by robust investment results from shareholders' funds, supported by modest growth in underlying insurance business, it said in a Q3 business update.

For the three months, its new business embedded value rose 17 per cent on the year to S$182.2 million from S$156.1 million.

However, total weighted new sales for Q3 fell by 5 per cent to S$373.1 million, from S$390.8 million previously, mainly due to lower single premium sales in Singapore, following a shift in product mix to align with emerging customer needs for longer-term financial planning priorities.

For the nine months ended Sep 30, net profit rose 12 per cent to S$965.7 million from S$860.5 million in the previous corresponding period.

Shares of Great Eastern ended Wednesday 0.1 per cent or S$0.02 higher at S$15.04.