South Korean insurance companies saw their net income soar 36.2 percent in the first six months of 2014 from a year earlier, buoyed by a rise in investment-related earnings, the financial watchdog said Sunday.

The combined net income of local life and nonlife insurers reached 3.38 trillion won ($3.26 billion) in the January-June period, compared with 2.48 trillion won the previous year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

Life insurance firms logged a 23.3 percent on-year jump in profit to 1.94 trillion won over the six-month period, while nonlife insurers net vaulted 58.7 percent to 1.44 trillion won over the cited period.

Their combined premium income slid 2.2 percent to 86.3 trillion won from 88.2 trillion won a year ago. Increased investment returns contributed to the strong bottom lines, with life insurers earning 729 billion won from investment, up 7.2 percent from a year earlier. Nonlife insurers also posted a 12.9 percent on-year increase in investment returns over the same period at 310.9 billion won. (Yonhap)