Insurance and investment firm AXA Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd (ASX: AXA) issued confirmations on Wednesday on its earlier announcement that its net profit retreated to $219 million in first half of 2010, suffering a slide of 19 percent from the $270 million netted last year.

On the other hand, the company said that its first half operating earnings totalled to $270 million, gaining an improvement of about six percent from the earnings of $255 million posted on the previous corresponding period.

Analysts said that the results were about five to ten percent below the market expectations as they pointed to weak turnover delivered by AXA's Hong Kong division, which fell by as much as 20 percent from earlier market projections.

Goldman Sachs' Ryan Fisher observed that the results, including that of the Hong Kong numbers, were closely akin to the pre-announced figures released two weeks earlier, adding that "the underlying result for Australian and New Zealand was still a few per cent stronger than what we were looking for."

Also, AXA APH reported a profit after tax and before investment experience and non-recurring items of $286 million, a surge of eight percent from the $266 million recorded in the prior corresponding period, with possible dividend distribution of 9.25 cents per share, franked, which was the same distribution last year but with a higher 30 percent franked.

As a result of the profit tumble, AXA APH shares plunged by 2.78 percent or 15 cents and by 1148 AEST, company stocks were trading at $5.25 following 2.7 million shares of changing hands.

CommSec market analyst Juliana Roadley told AAP that the retreat being seen on AXA's stocks were mainly fuelled by small trades as she added investors were closely monitoring the company after its market declines, with its woes being compounded by possible revisions on the standing $13 billion takeover bid for the company by the National Bank Australia Ltd (NAB).