Children walk past a PICC logo. Chinese insurers have around 1.1 trillion yuan for investment this year. [CFP]

In fact, the country's largest insurers, including China Life, Ping An and China Pacific Insurance, largely boosted their investments in the capital market in June.

An industry source said China Life spent 10 to 20 billion yuan buying mutual funds within just one week in June.

Thanks to the strong rebound in the capital markets, the whole industry may have doubled its profit to 26.1 billion yuan in the six months to June 30, with total premium income rising 6.6 percent to 598.6 billion yuan in the period, according to the CIRC.

Insurers invested 21 billion yuan in infrastructure projects in the first half of the year, chiefly in the transportation, telecommunications and energy sectors.

"As long as there are appropriate infrastructure projects, we will further increase our investments in that sector," the source from Taikang said.

Though the industry regulator hasn't released detailed regulations on insurers' investment in the property sector, a number of insurers have initiated preparatory work.

"We are in contact with several insurers who are seeking proper commercial properties, but they are still waiting for a better price as sliding rents have dented returns on investment," said Grant Ji, director of Savills (Beijing), a UK-based real estate service provider.

(China Daily July 21, 2009)