Why is AIA Group stock rising today?

AIA Group Ltd's stock climbed by 3.8% on Friday, reaching HK$74.4 following its Q3 earnings report. Despite a year-on-year decline in new business value, the life insurer demonstrated resilience in its operations. The company reported a value of new business of $1.415 billion, a 5% decrease on a constant exchange rate basis. This slump was primarily due to weaker performance in its Hong Kong and mainland China segments, although it was partially compensated by an 18% increase in new business value across other reporting units.

Notably, the new business value in September rose more than 25% compared to the previous year, indicating that the base-effect drag's impact was waning. The group's new business value margin expanded by 5.3 percentage points to 63.5%. For the nine months leading up to September 30, AIA's value of new business grew by 5% to $4.63 billion.

The company also expects strong momentum in the fourth quarter. Additionally, the stock benefited from a general trend of investors shifting away from technology stocks, with the Hang Seng Index surging over 1%.