* China Life annual profit falls 64.7 pct y/y

* Gross investment returns drop 30 pct y/y amid weak stockmarket(Adds bullet points, details)

SINGAPORE/HONG KONG, March 27 (Reuters) - China LifeInsurance Co reported a 64.7 percent dropin 2018 net profit on Wednesday, in line with its warning issuedin January, due to a sharp decline in investment returns fromweak stock markets.

The country's second-biggest insurer by market value, saidnet profit fell to 11.40 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) last yearfrom 32.25 billion yuan a year earlier.

In 2018, gross income on investment declined 30 percent froma year earlier to 95.15 billion yuan, which was mainly caused bya 36 percent drop in net returns from equity investments amidthe overall volatility and downward trend of the stock market.

China Life's gross written premiums were up 4.7 percent to535.83 billion yuan.

China Life warned in January that its 2018 net profit wouldfall by between 50 percent and 70 percent.

China's benchmark share indexes were among the world's worstperforming equity indicators last year, losing around a quarterof their value as the escalating Sino-U.S. trade war put furtherpressure on the slowing Chinese economy.

Analysts were expecting a net profit of 16.77 billion yuanin 2018, according to Refinitiv SmartEstimate. SmartEstimatesgive more weight to recent estimates by analysts.

China Life's mainland shares edged up 0.33 percent onWednesday ahead of the results announcement. They have gainedmore than 30 percent so far in 2019 against an above 20 percentyear-to-date rise of the blue-chip CSI300 index,giving the company a market value of 692.2 billion yuan.

($1 = 6.7235 Chinese yuan renminbi)(Reporting By Shu Zhang and Julie Zhu; Editing by MuralikumarAnantharaman and David Evans)