The "Year-End Blitz" of China's Insurance Capital Giants

In the continuously strengthening A-share market of 2025, a long-term force is quietly changing the landscape of the market.

This force is insurance capital.

For ordinary investors, this change may be just "subtle": the buying of heavyweight stocks is becoming increasingly "thick"; "sexy" emerging tech stocks continue to be favored; cyclical stocks are being quietly "bottom-fished"; even the previously neglected consumer "old blue-chip stocks" are becoming more agile...

The insurance capital of 2025 is significantly different from the past: the pace of allocating equity assets seems to have been pressed on the "accelerator."

This time, they are not just passing through, but are preparing to "stay long."

More and more funds are flowing into the market through this "low-key big player," quietly yet powerfully.

Two "Anchor Points" to Understand the Trends of Insurance Capital

Insurance companies do not disclose complete holdings regularly like public funds, nor do they lay out their entire investment portfolio for external scrutiny.

Because of this, the real allocation actions of insurance capital are often only "seen through a fog."

Zhitang has found that the data on the utilization of insurance funds regularly released by regulatory authorities unveils this veil.

Among them, two indicators are particularly crucial:

One is the "balance of fund utilization," which represents the total amount of investment funds available to the insurance industry, equivalent to a dynamically expanding "fund reservoir";

The second is the "book balance" of various asset classes, which indicates 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 explains "where the water flows." By combining the two, one can clearly see the real-time course of this "fund giant ship" of insurance capital.

The "Purse" of Insurance Capital is Full Again

Zhitang reviewed the latest data from financial regulatory authorities and found that in 2025, the investable funds of insurance capital are still steadily expanding.

By the end of the fourth quarter, the balance of fund utilization in the insurance industry had reached 38.48 trillion yuan, an increase of 1.02 trillion yuan from 37.46 trillion yuan at the end of the third quarter.

In just the last quarter of last year, a "trillion-level" fund pool was added.

Where does this money come from?

It mainly comes from the continuous inflow of premiums, coupled with investment income that keeps "snowballing."

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

In comparison, this figure was only 33.36 trillion yuan at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024, an increase of over 5 trillion yuan in one year, equivalent to the deposit scale of a large bank appearing out of thin air.

Such an increment should not be underestimated.

Over a Trillion Yuan in One Year, Rushing into the Market

Zhitang has found that in the last quarter of 2025, the "real money" investment of insurance capital in the stock market accelerated again—mainly through direct stock purchases.

Insurance capital enters the stock market generally through two paths: one is to buy stocks directly, called "direct investment"; the other is to participate indirectly by buying funds. Let's first look at the more direct path.

Data shows that by the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, the scale of stocks directly held by insurance capital rose to 3.73 trillion yuan, while the figure at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024 was 2.43 trillion yuan Over one trillion yuan of investable funds has emerged in the past year!

"Indirect Investment" Steadily Expanding

In addition to directly buying stocks, insurance funds have quietly increased their positions in the stock market through funds.

Data shows that by the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, the book balance of securities investment funds held by insurance funds has reached 1.97 trillion yuan, an increase of nearly 300 billion yuan compared to 1.68 trillion yuan at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024.

This increase may seem moderate, but its significance is not low. Considering the poor performance of bond funds in 2025 and the strong performance of equity funds, a considerable portion of this nearly 300 billion yuan increase should flow into equity-oriented products.

In other words, insurance funds are not only "buying in themselves" but are also increasing their positions through professional institutions.

The annual increase of over 300 billion yuan in fund allocation, combined with tens of trillions of yuan in direct stock investments, forms a "dual drive" for the equity layout of insurance funds in 2025.

Why Are Insurance Funds Still Increasing Positions at Year-End?

There is a wealth of information to interpret from the above data.

Firstly, the "absolute dominance" of bond allocation has loosened for the first time.

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

"Since the regulatory disclosure of this value for the first time in the second quarter of 2022, the proportion of bond allocation has shown a decline for the first time by the end of the third quarter of 2025, with a slight rebound in the proportion of bond allocation by the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, which is expected to be related to the increased allocation efforts at year-end."

Although this change is slight, it is a signal— the inertia of "fixed income supremacy" over the past three years is being broken.

More critically, equity allocation has entered a sustained upward channel.

Ge Yuxiang further emphasized:

"It is also worth noting that the proportion of stock allocation has improved for six consecutive quarters on a quarter-on-quarter basis."

"Analysis of allocation strategy by the end of the fourth quarter of 2025: the proportion of stock balance allocation reached 10.1%, at a historical high, benefiting from the dual drive of market hotspot rotation and increased allocation willingness."

Zhi Shi Tang noted that by the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, the book balance of direct stock investments by insurance companies accounted for 10.2% of the total fund utilization balance, which highly aligns with the above judgment.

The real highlight lies in the future incremental space.

In this regard, Ge Yuxiang provided quantitative calculations:

"We estimate that the cumulative increase in stock funds for insurance funds throughout the year has surged nearly 1.6 trillion yuan. Based on index fluctuations, we assume that about two-thirds of this contribution comes from market value fluctuations, and one-third comes from active position increases. We estimate that under neutral assumptions for 2026, the total incremental funds are approximately 713.3 billion yuan."

This means that the actions of Chinese insurance funds to increase positions are far from over!