Ageas : Are you having a giraffe?

Having a giraffe is a cockney expression for joking, having a laugh. And one will indeed laugh or at least smile while seeing the new advertisement campaign launched last week across Belgium by AG Insurance featuring 4 giraffes rollerblading in a city with the tag line 'Don't wait for another life. Live this one to the fullest with AG' (you can click here to watch the ad). This campaign, which aims to be seen by over 80% of the Belgian population, should further increase the brand awareness of AG Insurance who is a clear market leader totaling no less than 22% market share in its domestic market.

But European investors were not in a laughing mood last week as, despite a promising start on Monday, the markets declined for the third consecutive week. On Tuesday bank stocks tumbled as Giuseppe Conte's political agenda in Italy unnerved investors and as a consequence the Stoxx 600 Banks lost 1.7% on the day. On Wednesday, it was the insurance sector's turn to take a hit that could be linked to Amazon as the company was reported considering entering the home insurance business. Within half an hour after the news broke, almost all European insurance stocks went down and, while the Stoxx 600 closed the day flat, its Insurance segment ended 0.53% in the red. Then on Friday the markets were under pressure as trade tensions increased ahead of the G7 summit.

As a result, by the end of the week, the Euro Stoxx 50 and the BEL20 had lost respectively 0.2% and 1.0%, while Ageas' share declined 1.2% in line with the Stoxx 600 Insurance (-1.3%).