Amid ongoing fluctuations in the A-share market, major insurance capital, a cornerstone of the capital market, has intensified its supportive rhetoric. On July 20, five A-share listed insurers—China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd. (CPIC), Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd., New China Life Insurance Co., Ltd., The People's Insurance Company (Group) of China Limited (PICC), and China Life Insurance Company Limited—all expressed firm confidence in the prospects of China's capital market. They pledged to increase equity allocations, with a focus on investing in technology growth, new energy, and strategic emerging industries. Market observers widely believe that as patient capital, the insurers' resolute stance at this time will undoubtedly inject greater confidence into the market.
Insurance Capital to Bolster China's Capital Market
When the stock market experiences pullbacks, the strong resilience and self-healing capacity of China's capital market become evident. Faced with market volatility, the five major listed insurers have collectively sent signals to stabilize the market.
On the afternoon of July 20, CPIC announced that the company firmly believes in the long-term positive fundamentals of the Chinese economy and is confident in the development prospects of China's capital market. Adhering to its investment philosophy of "value investing, long-term investing, prudent investing, and responsible investing," the company sees long-term allocation value in China's equity market. It will continue to invest in stocks and ETFs related to technology growth, consumption, new energy, and other fields, supporting the cultivation and development of new quality productive forces and acting as genuine patient capital for the market.
Subsequently, Ping An stated that the company would further leverage its advantages as large-scale, long-term capital, flexibly utilize various comprehensive financial tools and investment strategies, and continuously increase investment in strategic emerging industries, advanced manufacturing, new infrastructure, and value-oriented sectors. This demonstrates the responsibility expected of patient capital through concrete actions.
Additionally, New China Life Insurance emphasized its firm confidence in the prospects of China's capital market, adhering to long-term, value-oriented, and prudent investment principles. It actively serves national strategies, supports the real economy, and continues to leverage the advantages of insurance funds as strategic, long-term, and patient capital. The company will increase the intensity of equity asset investments, enhance support for technological innovation and new quality productive forces, continuously optimize the structure of its equity asset allocation, and firmly support the development of the capital market.
PICC stated that, as a value investor upholding long-termism and the concept of patient capital, it firmly believes in the prospects of China's capital market. Through concrete actions, it actively seizes the dual opportunities of capital market valuation repair and industrial growth, resolutely acting as a value discoverer in China's capital market, an anchor for market stability, and a main force in serving the real economy, contributing PICC's strength to the high-quality development of China's capital market.
In the evening of July 20, China Life Insurance voiced its stance. As one of the largest professional institutional investors in China's capital market, China Life firmly believes in the bright prospects of the Chinese economy and the long-term positive trend of the capital market. Its subsidiary, China Life Asset Management Company, consistently adheres to the investment philosophy of long-term, value, and prudent investing for insurance funds. It continues to leverage the company's mechanism for promoting the entry of medium- to long-term funds into the market, seizing strategic allocation opportunities, optimizing and increasing the structure and proportion of equity investments, and increasing allocations in key areas such as the modern industrial system and new quality productive forces. This provides long-term stable capital supply to the capital market, promotes enterprise value enhancement within a virtuous cycle of the capital market, and helps increase investors' medium- to long-term returns and sense of gain. Recently, at corresponding market levels, China Life Asset Management Company intensified its efforts and actively allocated, achieving a single-day net purchase of over 10 billion yuan in A-share and on/off-exchange fund market equity assets.
The concentrated expression of confidence in the domestic capital market by insurance capital, as long-term and patient capital, aims to boost market confidence and stabilize sentiment. Wang Zhaojiang, President of Beishan Changcheng Fund Investment Research Institute, noted that during market volatility, leading insurers' intensive statements release strong signals for stabilization and optimism, helping to repair investor sentiment. On one hand, insurers can leverage their large-scale, long-term capital advantages on a significant scale, increase equity allocations, provide stable incremental funds for the A-share market, and act as a market anchor. On the other hand, insurance funds focusing investments on technology growth and new energy sectors can directly provide financial support to high-growth sectors, aiding economic structural transformation and valuation repair.
Against the backdrop of active market support from central state-owned enterprises, insurance capital, and listed companies, what is the outlook for the broader market? Soochow Securities stated that from a medium- to long-term perspective, the core logic supporting the upward movement of A-shares has not changed due to the recent deleveraging of funds. Therefore, the market is likely to form a阶段性底部 (stage bottom) within the current range. Wang Peng, Associate Researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, analyzed that this round of market adjustment is driven by short-term external liquidity shocks leading to sentiment and valuation digestion, not a reversal of fundamental trends. Current selling pressure has been fully释放 (released), the market has entered a bottom range, and a gradual震荡修复 (volatile recovery) will follow. In Wang Peng's view, the long-term industry trend of the technology sector has not ended. Previous adjustments have fully digested crowding pressure, and the sector will subsequently enter a phase of structural行情 (market performance) driven by earnings verification. Growth stocks with solid fundamentals will be the first to emerge from the recovery.
Supporting the Market and Themselves
In addition to increasing equity investments on the asset side, various insurers have also stated they are actively preparing for interim dividends.
CPIC, which has not paid interim dividends in past years, revealed that in 2026, the company will focus on optimizing its dividend节奏 (rhythm) and actively prepare for interim profit distribution. According to the resolution of the company's 2025 annual general meeting, the board is authorized to decide on the 2026 interim profit distribution plan, enhancing the stability, continuity, and predictability of dividends to further improve investors' sense of gain. Furthermore, Ping An and New China Life Insurance also stated they would continue to implement a dividend method combining interim cash dividends with annual cash dividends to actively回报投资者 (reward investors).
Insurance stocks have also experienced pullbacks this year, leading to interpretations that the listed insurers' statements are moves to boost their own valuations. Wang Zhaojiang noted that in volatile market conditions, stable dividend expectations reinforce the "bond-like" attributes of insurance stocks, helping to attract配置 (allocation) from稳健型长线资金 (steady long-term funds), supporting share prices, and aiding valuation repair. Optimizing dividend policies can enhance market recognition of insurers' intrinsic value,推动估值向合理区间回归 (driving valuations back towards a reasonable range).
Amid the continuous stream of market-supportive news, on July 20, the A-share insurance sector collectively rose. CPIC surged over 6%, Ping An gained over 4%, PICC also rose by 4%, while New China Life Insurance and China Life Insurance saw increases exceeding 3%.
Regarding the future trend of insurance stocks, Wang Zhaojiang predicts they有望成为主力上涨板块 (are likely to become a leading上涨板块 (rising sector)) in the second half of the year, leading the index higher. The main logic lies in the growth of insurance company业绩 (performance) and their currently highly attractive valuation levels.
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