sydneychallenger ltds shares fell early thursday after the australian financial services company reported a fall in its institutional annuity sales the stock was last down by 37 to 629 australian dollars us422 after hitting a low of a624 earlier the fund manager is currently one of the the worst performers on australias spasx 200 the companys update for the third quarter of fiscal 2023 showed life sales declined by 25 to a2 billion compared with the same period last year while institutional sales fell by 50 to a11 billion strong retail and sales in japan were offset by lower institutional sales the company said as we prioritize growth in longer duration retail business we have seen a moderation of institutional annuity sales with a lower level of maturities reinvested said chief executive nick hamilton institutional annuity sales are typically much shorter duration and we remain very disciplined on institutional term annuity pricing he said shares in challenger are down almost 18 so far in 2023