"Year-end Blitz of China's Insurance Giants"
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In the continuously strong A-share market of 2025, a long-term force is quietly changing the appearance of the market.
This force is insurance capital.
For ordinary investors, this change may be subtle: the buying power of heavyweight stocks is getting thicker; “sexy” emerging tech stocks remain popular; someone is quietly bottom-fishing cycle stocks; even the once-neglected consumer “old favorites” are moving more nimbly…
Insurance capital in 2025 is significantly different from the past: the pace of allocating equity assets seems to have pressed the “accelerator.”
This time, they're not just passing by—they're preparing to “stay for the long term.”
More and more funds are flowing into the market through this “low-profile heavyweight,” quietly but powerfully.
Two “anchors” to understand insurance capital movements
Insurance companies do not disclose complete holdings regularly like mutual funds, nor do they lay out their entire investment portfolio for outsiders to examine.
Because of this, the real allocation moves of insurance capital are often hard to see through.
Our review found: the data on insurance funds utilization, regularly published by regulatory authorities, reveals this veil to the market.
Two indicators are particularly key:
First is the “fund utilization balance,” representing the total amount of investment funds the insurance industry can use—a dynamically expanding “fund reservoir.”
Second is the “book balance” of major asset classes, meaning the scale of stocks, bonds, funds, etc., actually held by insurance capital at period-end, measured according to accounting standards.
The former tells you “how big the pool is,” the latter shows “where the water flows.” Together, they let you see the real-time direction of this “giant fund ship.”
The insurance capital “wallet” grows fuller
Reviewing the latest data from financial regulators: in 2025, insurance capital's investable funds are steadily expanding.
By the end of Q4, the insurance industry’s fund utilization balance had reached 38.48 trillion yuan, up 1.02 trillion from Q3’s 37.46 trillion yuan.
Just the last quarter alone saw the addition of a “trillion-level” fund pool.
Where did this money come from?
Mainly from continued premium inflows, plus compounding investment returns.
Life insurance companies held 34.66 trillion yuan, property insurance companies had 2.42 trillion yuan, together supporting the overall market.
In comparison: at the end of Q4 2024, this figure was only 33.36 trillion yuan—a year saw over 5 trillion more, roughly equivalent to the deposit scale of a major bank appearing out of thin air.
This increment is not to be underestimated.
Over one trillion in funds, rushing into the market in a year
Our review found insurance capital’s real cash investment in the stock market accelerated in the last quarter of 2025—mainly through direct stock purchases.
Insurance funds enter the stock market generally through two routes: one is direct stock buying (“direct investment”); the other is indirectly via funds. Let’s first look at the more direct route.
According to the data, by the end of Q4 2025, the scale of stocks directly held by insurance capital rose to 3.73 trillion yuan, compared to 2.43 trillion yuan at the end of Q4 2024.
Over one trillion in investable funds emerged within the past year!
“Indirect investment” expands steadily
Besides direct stock purchases, insurance capital has also quietly increased stock market allocation through funds.
Data shows, as of Q4 2025, insurance funds’ book balance in securities investment funds reached 1.97 trillion yuan, up nearly 300 billion from 1.68 trillion yuan at Q4 2024.
This growth appears modest, but is significant. Considering bond funds performed poorly in 2025, while equity funds were outstanding, a considerable portion of this nearly 300 billion increment likely flowed into equity-oriented products.
In other words, insurance capital is not only “buying directly” but also “increasing allocation via professionals.”
Annual fund configuration growth of over 300 billion, combined with several trillion in direct stock investment, together form the “dual engines” of insurance capital’s equity deployment in 2025.
Why is insurance capital still increasing allocation at year-end?
There’s much information to interpret in these data.
Firstly, the “absolute dominance” of bond allocation showed initial signs of loosening.
Zhongtai Securities analyst Ge Yuxiang pointed out in his latest report:
“Since the regulator first disclosed the value in Q2 2022, Q3 2025 saw the first drop in bond allocation ratio; slight rebound in Q4 2025, likely due to increased allocation at year-end.”
This change is subtle, but it's a signal—the inertia of “fixed income is king” over the past three years is being broken.
More importantly, equity allocation has entered a continuous upward channel.
Ge Yuxiang further emphasized:
“Notably, the stock allocation ratio has improved for six consecutive quarters.”
“Q4 2025 configuration strategy analysis: the stock balance allocation ratio reached 10.1%, a historical high—driven by both market sector rotation and heightened willingness to allocate.”
We note that by the end of Q4 2025, insurance companies’ stock direct investment book balance accounted for 10.2% of fund utilization balance, closely matching the above judgment.
The real focus is the future incremental space.
To this, Ge Yuxiang gave a quantitative estimate:
“We estimate a cumulative annual increase of nearly 1.6 trillion yuan in insurance equity funds; assuming about two-thirds attributable to market value fluctuations and one-third to active allocation, we estimate under a neutral scenario, incremental funds in 2026 may reach about 713.3 billion yuan.”
This means Chinese insurance capital’s increased allocation is far from finished!
Risk warning and disclaimerThe market has risks, investment should be cautious. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it take into account the specific investment goals, financial situation or needs of any individual user. Users should consider whether any opinions, views or conclusions in this article fit their circumstances. Invest accordingly at your own risk. ```