Swiss Re, the world's second largest reinsurance company, has seen its net profit for the first six months of the year leap by 28 per cent to SFr3.26 billion ($1.85 billion).

In a statement, the company said it expected "very positive" results for the year as a whole.

It said there were two main factors behind the latest figures.

First, the surge in profit reflected a 22 per cent rise in investment income to SFr5.6 billion, mainly due to capital gains as Swiss Re shifted into bonds from stocks.

Second, there were healthy increases in life results because of continued growth.

The results from Swiss Re far exceeded analysts' expectations, which underestimated capital gains, predicting that net profit would fall to around SFr2 billion.

Swiss Re is second only to Germany's Munich Re in the reinsurance market.

swissinfo with agencies

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