Insurance funds have increased their holdings by over one trillion yuan this year! A super "long-term buyer" has emerged in the A-shares market.

In this year’s persistently strong stock market, a long-term force has been quietly shaping investors’ “structure”—this is insurance capital.

For ordinary stockholders, this change may be simply “subtle and gradual.”

You may suddenly notice: buying interest in heavyweight stocks is increasing; dividend assets that used to be ignored are becoming more active; unpopular financial stocks have “bottom-fishers”; “white elephant stocks” like home appliances and telecom operators are moving more nimbly; internet platforms that were stagnant for 3–4 years are bouncing back and starting to challenge new highs since 2021.

The “invisible hand” behind all this may well be the insurance capital that has kept a low profile for years. Yet this year, insurance capital is behaving differently. Driven by both policy and market, its pace of “bottom-fishing” the equity market seems to have hit the “accelerator,” with various insurance institutions continuously entering the market through multiple channels.

A deep-seated change in market structure has begun…

Two Key “Indicators”

To understand the intensity of insurance capital’s increase this year, one must first recognize its “capital foundation.”

But insurance capital is not like public funds; it does not have to disclose much information, nor will it “lay out” its entire portfolio for outsiders to scrutinize.

Therefore, the exact amount invested by insurance capital this year, and in which asset classes and markets, is not clear to outsiders—everyone only knows the overall capital is immense.

However, the entire “real story” is revealed through information publicly disclosed by regulatory authorities.

Among the series of data published by regulators, two are particularly eye-catching: one is the “balance of funds used,” which refers to the total amount of investable capital held by insurance companies, essentially the “investable funds pool.”

The other is the “book balance” of various types of assets held by insurance institutions, which reflects the year-end scale of assets held, calculated according to accounting standards.

These two figures—one showing the capacity of insurance capital that needs allocation, the other its specific “deployment”—are both highly significant.

Insurance Capital’s “Family Holdings” Surge Over 4 Trillion Yuan

Zishitang’s review of the relevant financial regulatory authority’s official website shows: from the start of the year to the end of Q3, the overall investable “family holdings” of insurance companies have increased by over 4 trillion yuan.

Specifically, at the end of 2024, the size of this “investable funds pool” was 33.36 trillion yuan; by Q3 2025, it had expanded to 37.46 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.1 trillion yuan quarter-on-quarter.

Of course, the main source is premium growth, but it is not all from newly sold policies, as it should also include returns from capital markets and other investment projects this year.

But overall, in the first 9 months of this year, the fund base of China’s insurance companies expanded by over 4 trillion yuan, an increase of about 12%.

This scale of growth is equivalent to the total deposits of a medium-sized local bank—not to be underestimated.

“Direct Investment” in the Stock Market Rises Over 1 Trillion Yuan

Zishitang has found that a large portion of the new funds in the insurance industry this year was used to increase stakes in the stock market—mainly the A-share market.

The “categories” for insurance capital investing in the stock market include two: one is the “book balance” of “direct investment” in stocks, and the other is the “book balance” of “indirect investment” in securities investment funds.

Let’s first focus on the scale of “direct investment” in stocks.

Statistics show that in the first three quarters this year, the volume of direct investment in stocks by insurance institutions increased by about 1.19 trillion yuan from the beginning of the year—a growth of nearly 50%.

Specifically, by the end of Q4 2024, insurance funds directly held 2.43 trillion yuan in stocks; by Q3 2025, this had risen to 3.62 trillion yuan.

Comparing to the 4 trillion yuan increase in the capital base mentioned earlier, we find that insurance capital allocated more than one third of this year’s new funds to stocks—mainly A-share stocks.

Even accounting for appreciation of initial holdings (such as the increase of the CSI 300 index in the first three quarters), there should still be over 800 billion yuan in new investment—making this an extremely vigorous new force in the industry.

“Indirect Investment” in the Stock Market Is Equally Vigorous

But that’s not all; the balance of securities investment funds—insurance capital’s “indirect investment” in the stock market—has also been growing rapidly.

Preliminary statistics show that in the first three quarters, insurance capital increased its input into securities investment funds by approximately 290 billion yuan.

Specifically, by the end of Q4 2024, the scale was 1.68 trillion yuan; by Q3 2025, it had risen to 1.97 trillion yuan.

Given that institutions have been gradually withdrawing from fixed income funds for various reasons this year, a significant portion of this nearly 300 billion yuan increase is likely also allocated to equity funds.

Therefore, by any statistical measure, insurance capital’s annual input into the stock market—mainly A-share assets—may approach 1 trillion yuan, an all-time high.

Furthermore, even as investable scale expands, insurance capital has channeled over one third of new funds into equity-related assets, fully reflecting its growing emphasis on related markets.

What Drives Insurance Capital to Invest So Much in Equities?

So why is insurance capital aggressively investing in the stock market?

In addition to policy calls, they also have their own demands for increasing equity investments.

Analyst Ge Yuxiang from Zhongtai Securities mentioned in a recent report: Without exogenous capital injection, insurance capital faces a “triangle challenge”: raising solvency adequacy ratio—increasing equity allocation ratio—persistently low external interest rates.

Simply put, this means:

With low interest rates and limited bond returns, life insurance companies have strong incentives to shift part of their funds from fixed income to higher-yielding equity assets, in order to maintain long-term financial health and solvency capacity.

Zishitang notes that: by the end of September this year, insurance companies’ direct investment in stocks had reached 10% of used funds balance, a historical high.

And this may not be the end.

Whether from premium expansion or the downward trend in interest rates for fixed income and deposit markets, this trend will continue. A steadily rising, value-driven stock market may further strengthen insurance capital’s confidence.

Specific Asset Choices Invite Speculation

Additionally, more news indicates that insurance capital’s continued increase in direct stock investments has made high-dividend assets in A-shares and H-shares a major direction.

Recent statistics from GF Securities show that in 2024 so far, insurance capital has increased holdings in 47 listed companies; dividend style, especially preference for H-share dividends, is evident. Aside from Ping An increasing stakes in major banks such as ICBC, CCB, Postal Savings Bank, Agricultural Bank, China Merchants Bank, and insurance enterprises like China Life and CPIC, public utilities and transportation are also major directions.

A research report from Guotai Haitong Securities concludes: the above signs of increased equity holdings are driven on the one hand by insurance companies’ continued expansion of stock asset allocations, and on the other by the rising market boosting the value of equity assets.

Risk Warning and DisclaimerThe market carries risk, and investment requires caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it take into account individual users’ special investment objectives, financial situations, or needs. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions herein suit their own circumstances. Investment based on this is at your own risk.