UPDATE 3-Industrial Alliance profit jumps 17 pct
* Q3 EPS C$0.74 vs C$0.63 a year earlier
* Analysts forecast EPS of C$0.65
* Profit surpasses estimates, shares surge (Recasts, adds CEO comments from conference call)
By Andrea Hopkins
TORONTO, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services (IAG.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) kicked off earnings season for Canada's big life insurers on Wednesday with a 17 percent jump in profit, sending its shares up by more than 4 percent.
Canada's fourth-largest life insurer said net income surged to C$60.1 million ($56.7 million), or 74 Canadian cents a share, in the three months to Sept. 30, up from C$51.2 million, or 63 Canadian cents a share, in the year-ago period.
The result beat the average analyst profit estimate of 65 Canadian cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, and sent its shares 4.3 percent higher to C$30.61 by late Wednesday afternoon in Toronto.
The broader S&P/TSX financial index of banks, insurance companies and asset managers was up just 0.5 percent.
Profit at the Quebec City-based insurer was boosted by a C$1.1 million gain as the difference between the market value of its debt instruments and that of underlying assets changed in the company's favor, but the biggest part of the surge was pure stock market gains in its investment portfolio. Continued...
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