Driven by a recovery in the capital markets, insurance stocks have shown strong performance. Throughout 2025, insurance stocks even repeatedly outperformed the banking and other non-bank financial sectors. Industry commentators noted that insurance stocks became the biggest positive surprise in terms of gains on the A-share market.
Looking at the performance of the five A-share listed insurers, all posted gains in 2025, with the insurance sector as a whole rising by 31.31%, directly outperforming the Shanghai Composite Index. During the year, both China Life Insurance and Ping An Insurance saw their market capitalizations exceed 1.2 trillion yuan, firmly securing the top two positions in the industry. Meanwhile, China Pacific Insurance hit a record high since its listing, with its year-end market capitalization breaking through 400 billion yuan.
Notably, New China Life Insurance led the gains with a full-year increase of 46%, surpassing established insurers such as China Pacific Insurance and China Life Insurance. In terms of H-shares, the rise was even more pronounced, with New China Life Insurance surging 146% in 2025. The primary reason for this is the lower valuation base of H-shares, coupled with overseas investors' heightened sensitivity to the recovery expectations of China's insurance industry.
Entering 2026, insurance stocks have demonstrated even stronger performance. On February 9, the A-share insurance sector was uniformly in positive territory, with China Life Insurance and Ping An Insurance both rising over 2.5%. The Hong Kong-listed insurance sector also strengthened simultaneously.
A research report from China Securities Co., Ltd. mentioned that against the backdrop of a large number of deposits maturing recently, savings-oriented insurance products, represented by participating policies, are expected to continue meeting residents' long-term stable value appreciation needs due to their high returns and long terms. This, combined with leading insurers seizing opportunities to improve bancassurance value rates and increasing their布局, is likely to drive rapid growth in new business premiums and New Business Value (NBV).
The stock price of New China Life Insurance has repeatedly reached new highs. As of February 10, its A-shares closed at 80.34 yuan per share, with its market capitalization exceeding 250 billion yuan. The capital market is the quickest barometer reflecting a company's fundamentals and value prospects.
Using New China Life Insurance as a typical case, this wave of stock price increases is primarily attributed to several key factors. The first is the growth in premium income. In 2025, New China Life Insurance's cumulative original premium income reached 195.898 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15%. This compares to a growth rate of 2.8% in its original premium income for 2024.
The second factor is the improvement in investment returns. In the first three quarters of 2025, New China Life Insurance's investment income amounted to 40.413 billion yuan, a surge of 687.16% year-on-year, driving net profit attributable to parent company shareholders to 32.857 billion yuan, an increase of 58.88%.
The third factor is the significant results of its transformation. In 2025, New China Life Insurance focused on rapidly implementing a series of transformation measures, including enhancements in basic management, service ecosystems, product innovation, team building, technology enablement, asset-liability coordination, and brand culture development. Particularly, the expansion of participating insurance products has achieved certain successes.
Fitch Ratings' latest report affirmed New China Life Insurance Company's Insurer Financial Strength (IFS) rating at 'A' (Strong), with a Stable Outlook. The report mentioned that New China Life Insurance's financial performance is 'Very Strong,' benefiting from its sustained profit growth and robust expansion in new business value. Its average return on equity from the first half of 2023 to the first half of 2025 was 22.5%, significantly higher than the guidance level for insurers rated in the 'A' IFS category.
Furthermore, in the first half of 2025, New Business Value surged 58.4% year-on-year to 6.2 billion yuan, reflecting the optimization of New China Life Insurance's business structure and the improvement in business quality. It is noteworthy that this marks the tenth consecutive year New China Life Insurance has received an 'A' rating from Fitch, demonstrating the market's continued recognition of its operational stability.