China's Insurance Giants' "Year-End Offensive"

In the strong A-share market continuing into 2025, a long-term force is quietly changing the market landscape.

This force is the insurance capital.

For ordinary investors, this change may be subtle: the buying pressure on large-cap stocks is increasing; the “sexy” emerging tech stocks continue to be favored; cyclical stocks are quietly “bottom-fishing”; even the previously neglected consumer “old stars” are stepping lightly…

In 2025, insurance capital differs significantly from the past: the pace of allocating to equity assets has been “accelerated.”

And this time, they are not just passing by—they are preparing to “stay long.”

More and more funds are flowing into the market through this “low-profile major player,” quietly but with great strength.

Two “anchors” to understand the movement of insurance capital

Insurance companies do not disclose their full holdings regularly like public funds, nor do they reveal their entire investment portfolios to the public.

Therefore, the true allocation actions of insurance capital are often only “seen through a fog.”

Data analysis shows that the regulatory authorities’ periodic release of insurance fund utilization data unveils this aspect.

Two indicators are particularly key:

1. “Fund utilization balance,” representing the total investable funds available to the insurance industry, akin to a dynamically expanding “water reservoir” of funds;

2. The “book balance” of major asset classes, i.e., the scale of stocks, bonds, funds, and other assets actually held by insurance capital at the end of the period, measured according to accounting standards.

The former tells you “how big the pool is,” while the latter shows “where the water flows.” Combining both provides a clear view of the real-time direction of this “funds giant ship.”

Insurance capital’s “wallet” is swelling again

Data from financial regulatory authorities shows that in 2025, the investable funds of insurance capital continue to grow steadily.

By the end of Q4, the industry’s fund utilization balance reached 38.48 trillion yuan, up 1.02 trillion yuan from 37.46 trillion yuan at the end of Q3.

Just in the last quarter of 2024, a “trillion-level” fund pool was added.

Where does this money come from?

Mainly from continuous premium inflows and investment returns “snowballing.”

Among them, life insurance companies hold 34.66 trillion yuan, property insurance companies hold 2.42 trillion yuan, together supporting the entire market.

Compare this: at the end of Q4 2024, this figure was only 33.36 trillion yuan, so in one year, it increased by over 5 trillion yuan—equivalent to the deposit scale of a large bank appearing out of nowhere.

Such growth should not be underestimated.

Over 1 trillion yuan flowing into the market annually

Data analysis shows that in the last quarter of 2025, insurance capital’s “real money” investment in the stock market accelerated again—and mainly through direct stock purchases.

Insurance funds entering the stock market generally follow two paths: one is direct investment (“direct purchase”); the other is indirect participation through funds. Let’s look at the more direct route first.

Data indicates that by the end of Q4 2025, the direct stock holdings of insurance capital increased to 3.73 trillion yuan, up from 2.43 trillion yuan at the end of Q4 2024.

Over one trillion yuan of investable funds appeared in just one year!

“Indirect investment” steadily expanding

In addition to direct stock purchases, insurance capital is quietly increasing its holdings in the stock market through funds.

Data shows that by the end of Q4 2025, the book balance of securities investment funds held by insurance funds reached 1.97 trillion yuan, up from 1.68 trillion yuan at the end of Q4 2024, an increase of nearly 300 billion yuan over the year.

This seemingly moderate increase is significant. Considering that bond funds performed poorly in 2025, while equity funds performed well, a large part of this nearly 300 billion yuan increase likely flowed into equity-oriented products.

In other words, insurance capital is not only “buying directly” but also “leveraging” professional institutions to increase holdings.

The combined growth of over 300 billion yuan in fund allocations and the tens of trillions of yuan in direct stock investments form a “dual-wheel drive,” jointly shaping the 2025 equity layout of insurance capital.

Why does insurance capital keep increasing its holdings at year-end?

There is a wealth of information to interpret from these data points.

First, the dominant position of bond allocation is loosening for the first time.

Gu Yuxiang, an analyst at Zhongtai Securities, pointed out in a recent report:

“Since the first disclosure of this figure by regulators in Q2 2022, the bond allocation ratio at the end of Q3 2025 has first declined, then slightly rebounded at the end of Q4 2025, likely related to increased allocation efforts at year-end.”

This change, though subtle, is a signal—the inertia of “fixed income dominance” over the past three years is being broken.

More importantly, equity allocation has entered a sustained upward trend.

Gu Yuxiang further emphasized:

“At the same time, it is worth noting that the proportion of stock allocation has improved for six consecutive quarters.”

“Analysis of the allocation strategy at the end of Q4 2025 shows that the stock balance ratio reached 10.1%, a historical high, driven by market hot-spot rotation and increased allocation willingness.”

Data analysis shows that by the end of Q4 2025, the direct stock holdings of insurance companies accounted for 10.2% of the fund utilization balance, aligning closely with this assessment.

The real focus, however, is on future incremental space.

Gu Yuxiang provided a quantitative estimate:

“We estimate that the total annual increase in insurance funds’ stock and fund holdings will be close to 1.6 trillion yuan. Based on index fluctuations, about two-thirds of this is expected to come from market value appreciation, and one-third from active incremental purchases of billions of yuan. Under a neutral scenario in 2026, the estimated annual incremental funds would be approximately 713.3 billion yuan.”

This means that China’s insurance capital’s increasing positions are far from over!

Risk warning and disclaimer

Market risks exist; investment should be cautious. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and does not consider individual users’ specific investment goals, financial situations, or needs. Users should consider whether any opinions, viewpoints, or conclusions in this article are suitable for their particular circumstances. Invest at your own risk.