PARIS (Reuters) - Ageas was up on Monday after BNP Paribas announced on Sunday that it had signed an agreement with the Chinese group Fosun to acquire its 9% stake in the Belgian insurer, for around 730 million euros.

On the Brussels Stock Exchange at around 08:20 GMT, Ageas led the BEL20 by 3.5% to 43.96 euros, compared with a 0.11% gain for the index at the same time.

The sale "finally puts an end to months of speculation and eliminates the Fosun 'overhang' that has weighed on the stock for more than a year and a half", says KBC Securities in a note, adding that the sale "is not a total surprise", given Fosun's ongoing difficulties.

Medical-financial conglomerate Fosun, whose shares closed down around 1% on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Monday, said it would retain 1.95 million Ageas shares after the sale.

(Written by Augustin Turpin, with contributions from Nathan Vifflin, edited by Blandine Hénault)