The investment performance and strategic stock holdings of China's top five listed insurers have been unveiled with the conclusion of their 2025 annual report disclosures. Combined investment assets of these major insurers reached 20.7 trillion yuan in 2025, marking a 12.8% year-on-year increase, with investment returns showing significant growth across the board.
New China Life Insurance Company Ltd. led the sector with a total investment return rate of 6.6%. Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China, Ltd. and China Life Insurance Company Limited followed closely, securing positions in the top tier with a comprehensive investment return rate of 6.3% and a total investment return rate of 6.09%, respectively. China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd. and The People'S Insurance Company (Group) Of China Limited formed the second tier, both achieving a total investment return rate of 5.7%.
Amid a low-interest-rate environment and supportive policy guidance, insurers collectively increased their allocations to equity investments. Companies like China Life Insurance Company Limited and Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China, Ltd. implemented strategic boosts to their equity asset holdings, resulting in substantial growth in their public market equity scales.
Concurrently, the list of heavily held liquid stocks by insurance capital has been released. Based on data from listed companies that have disclosed their 2025 annual reports, insurance funds held significant positions in nearly 200 stocks by the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, with a total holding value approaching 1.48 trillion yuan. Bank stocks accounted for nearly 30% of this total holding value. During the fourth quarter, Ping An Life Insurance, a subsidiary of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China, Ltd., substantially increased its stake in Agricultural Bank Of China Limited by 946 million shares. China Life Insurance Company Limited newly entered the top ten liquid shareholders of several listed companies, including Bank Of Communications Co.,Ltd., Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China, Ltd., and Aluminum Corporation Of China Limited.
**Boosting Equity Asset Investments**
In 2025, investment returns for all major insurers increased year-on-year, becoming a key driver for boosting net profit. New China Life Insurance Company Ltd. led peers with a 6.6% total investment return rate and a 30.9% year-on-year increase in total investment income. Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China, Ltd. followed with a 6.3% comprehensive investment return rate and a 13.5% growth in total investment income. China Life Insurance Company Limited maintained the largest investment asset scale in the industry at 7.42 trillion yuan, achieving total investment income of 387.694 billion yuan, a 25.8% increase year-on-year, with a total investment return rate of 6.09%. These three companies constituted the first tier of investment performance.
China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd. and The People'S Insurance Company (Group) Of China Limited, with total investment return rates of 5.7%, formed the second tier. They achieved total investment incomes of 141.634 billion yuan and 92.323 billion yuan, representing year-on-year increases of 17.6% and 12.4%, respectively, demonstrating solid stability. China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd. attributed the improvement in total investment income primarily to a significant rise in gains from securities trading.
Against the backdrop of a low-interest-rate environment and policies encouraging insurance capital entry into the markets in 2025, insurers proactively optimized their asset allocation structures. Increasing equity investment emerged as the core driver for enhancing investment returns.
By the end of 2025, the allocation ratio for stocks and funds (excluding money market funds) at China Life Insurance Company Limited had risen to 16.89% from 12.18% at the end of 2024. This was mainly due to the company seizing market opportunities to decisively increase equity investments, leading to a notable expansion in its equity investment scale. In 2025, China Life Insurance Company Limited's public market equity investment scale exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan, increasing by over 450 billion yuan from the start of the year.
Liu Hui, Vice President and Chief Investment Officer of China Life Insurance Company Limited, recently stated at an earnings conference that equity investment was the decisive factor for improving returns in 2025. The company actively promoted the entry of medium to long-term capital into the markets and strategically raised its equity allocation ratio by nearly 5 percentage points.
By the end of 2025, within Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China, Ltd.'s equity-type assets, the proportion of stocks had risen to 14.8%, while funds accounted for 4.4%. The company emphasized in its annual report its adherence to a long-term investment philosophy, enhancing a balanced layout between dividend-value and tech-growth equities to pursue steady investment returns that outperform the market over the long term.
During the same period, the stock and fund investment amount at New China Life Insurance Company Ltd. reached 389.026 billion yuan, with its proportion in investment assets increasing by 2.4 percentage points to 21.2%. The combined investment in stocks and equity-type funds at China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd. totaled 408.716 billion yuan, accounting for 13.4% of assets, an increase of 2.2 percentage points from the end of the previous year. The People'S Insurance Company (Group) Of China Limited raised its stock investment ratio by 5 percentage points to 8.7%.
**Heavy Holdings in Bank Stocks**
As representative long-term, patient capital in the market, the stock holdings within insurance funds' equity investments, particularly their heavily held liquid stocks, are always closely watched by the capital markets.
Based on data from A-share companies that have disclosed 2025 annual reports, insurance funds held significant positions in nearly 200 stocks by the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, with a total holding value of approximately 1.48 trillion yuan.
Sector allocation shows that insurance capital deployment is characterized by absolute dominance in the banking sector and a dispersed allocation in manufacturing. Insurance funds continued their preference for low-risk, high-dividend yielding assets, with bank stocks being the core allocation area. By the end of Q4 2025, insurance funds held significant positions in 16 banking stocks, with a total holding value of 438.313 billion yuan, accounting for nearly 30% of the total holdings value—far exceeding other sectors. Leading banks such as Ping An Bank Co.,Ltd., China Merchants Bank Co.,Ltd., and Agricultural Bank Of China Limited were heavily held by multiple insurers.
Allocation in manufacturing was more dispersed, involving a larger number of stocks but accounting for less than 4% of the total holding value, reflecting a strategy of "many stocks, small individual holding values."
Regarding changes in holdings, insurance funds overall showed an active trend of increasing stakes. In Q4 2025, insurance funds increased their holdings in Agricultural Bank Of China Limited, Industrial And Commercial Bank Of China Limited, and China Citic Bank Corporation Limited by over 100 million shares each. Notably, Ping An Life Insurance increased its stake in Agricultural Bank Of China Limited by 946 million shares, while China Life Insurance Company Limited increased its holdings in Industrial And Commercial Bank Of China Limited by 402 million shares and in China Citic Bank Corporation Limited by 195 million shares. Additionally, insurance funds increased their holdings in China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, China Telecom Corporation Limited, Sinotrans Limited, Hunan Valin Steel Co.,Ltd., and Industrial Bank Co.,Ltd. by over 10 million shares each. However, some stocks experienced reductions. For instance, Hexie Health Insurance reduced its stake in Goldwind Science&Technology Co.,Ltd. by over 133 million shares, and China Life Insurance Company Limited reduced its stake in Bank Of China Limited by over 57.98 million shares.
It is noteworthy that in Q4 2025, insurance funds newly entered the top ten liquid shareholders of over 80 listed companies. These targets were primarily concentrated in sectors such as finance, transportation, non-ferrous metals, and electrical equipment.
Among these, China Life Insurance Company Limited became a new top-ten shareholder in Bank Of Communications Co.,Ltd., Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China, Ltd., and Aluminum Corporation Of China Limited, increasing its holdings by 670 million shares, 206 million shares, and 131 million shares respectively in Q4 2025. The corresponding quarter-end holding values were 4.858 billion yuan, 14.076 billion yuan, and 1.600 billion yuan. Furthermore, New China Life Insurance Company Ltd. increased its stake in The People'S Insurance Company (Group) Of China Limited by 159 million shares, with a quarter-end holding value of 1.421 billion yuan. Taiping Life Insurance and Taiping Assets collectively increased their stake in Hunan Valin Steel Co.,Ltd. by 127 million yuan, with a quarter-end holding value of 711 million yuan.
Yang Delong, Chief Economist and Fund Manager at Qianhai Open Source Fund, commented that during the divergent market trends of A-shares in 2025, the "barbell strategy" combining technology and low-valuation dividend stocks proved effective, with bank stocks repeatedly hitting new highs. He suggested this strategy remains applicable in 2026, with one end of the barbell still focused on technological innovation industries, while the other end might gradually shift from dividend stocks to resource stocks and some traditional blue-chips in heavy-asset industries.
Yang Delong pointed out that under the current Fourth Technological Revolution, the widespread use of artificial intelligence is a defining characteristic of the era. Investment should focus on two types of targets: first, areas difficult for AI to replace, such as the HALO assets (Heavy Asset, Low Obsolescence) mentioned by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, including infrastructure sectors like power equipment, non-ferrous metals, and railway logistics; second, industries accelerated by AI development, corresponding to key directions in the 15th Five-Year Plan, such as humanoid robots, chips and semiconductors, computing power and algorithms, energy storage, and biomedicine.
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