Our reporter Su Xianggao

　　According to the information disclosed by the Insurance Industry Association of China on November 28, Taiping Life Insurance raised the H shares of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China on November 25. This is the second time that insurance funds have taken the initiative to raise their cards this year.

Affected by factors such as increased volatility in the equity market, the number of insurance capital raising cards this year has been relatively low overall.

　　Taiping Life Insurance stated that before participating in the placard raising, Taiping Life Insurance had held 4.28 billion H shares of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

On November 25, Taiping Life bought another 80 million H shares of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, involving approximately HK$307.7 million in funds. After the placard was raised, Taiping Life held ICBC H shares accounting for 5.02% of its Hong Kong tradable shares.

　　Taiping Life Insurance also mentioned that the source of funds for the purchase of ICBC H shares this time is the insurance liability reserve for the dividend account.

Based on the closing price of ICBC's H shares of HK$3.85 on November 25, 2022 and the end-of-day exchange rate of HK$ to RMB on the same day, Taiping Life's book balance of ICBC's H shares is RMB 15.39 billion.

　　"Compared with other funds, insurance funds pay more attention to safety, and generally choose companies with lower valuations to obtain more stable returns. The current valuation of the banking sector is at a historically low level. Judging from last year's data, the industry and commerce The dividends of bank H-shares are relatively reasonable, and with the improvement of banking policy, the attractiveness to insurance funds has gradually increased.” Chen Li, chief economist and director of the research institute of Chuancai Securities, told reporters.

　　A relevant person in charge of a medium-sized insurance capital institution told reporters that in recent years, most of the targets of insurance capital placards are state-owned big banks, and Hong Kong stocks are more popular among bank stocks.

The main reason for preferring bank stocks is that the dividend rate and dividend rate of large domestic listed banks are generally high, and compared with A-share listed bank stocks, Hong Kong-listed bank stocks have lower valuations.

　　However, the overall enthusiasm for raising placards for insurance funds this year is low. A total of 4 placards were raised during the year, of which only 2 were voluntary.

Specifically, in addition to the above placards, China Pacific Insurance and its two holding subsidiaries also took the initiative to raise placards for Hong Kong stock Tianqi Lithium in July this year.

　　In fact, insurance capital has reduced the frequency of placards since last year, and it has continued to this year.

According to the reporter's combing, since last year, insurance funds have raised placards a total of 5 times, excluding 2 passive placards, and only 3 active placards, which is significantly lower than the frequency of placards in the past few years.

　　With the introduction of favorable policies, insurance capital is expected to continue to increase its holdings and raise bank stocks.

Chen Li said that from the perspective of valuation, the banking sector has undergone more adjustments in the first three quarters of this year, and the current valuation of the sector is already at a historically low level.

Recently, the central bank has lowered the RRR, and policies to stabilize real estate have been issued frequently, and the real estate policy has been improved.

In this context, the risk transmission of the real estate industry to the banking system has been alleviated. With the recovery of market sentiment, the banking industry is expected to achieve valuation restoration, which has a certain allocation value for insurance funds.

　　The above-mentioned medium-sized insurance capital institutions told reporters that the frequency of insurance capital placards is closely related to factors such as the trend of the A-share market and the judgment of insurance capital institutions on the equity market. The current market valuations of A-shares and Hong Kong stocks are relatively low. Plates have configuration value.

As the equity market picks up next year, insurance funds are expected to further increase their allocation.

　　The person in charge of our assets also told reporters that the investment of insurance funds has always been based on the long-term and attaches great importance to valuation. When the valuation has investment value, it has the ability and willingness to take "buying more and more down" against the trend.

　　It is worth noting that on November 28, the Insurance Asset Management Association of China released the third issue of the "Investigation Report on 100 People in Asset Management" on its official Weibo. trend.

　　Judging from the current allocation ratio of insurance capital to the equity market, the data disclosed by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission shows that as of the end of October, the balance of insurance capital utilization reached 24.5 trillion yuan, of which the allocation scale for "stock and securities investment funds" was 2.9 trillion yuan Yuan, accounting for 11.84%, which is still the lowest point since 2019, and there is still a lot of room for the upper limit of allocation stipulated by the regulations.

(Securities Daily)