Reporter Su Xianggao
Since the beginning of this year, foreign capitals (northbound funds) have continued to significantly increase their positions in A-share banking and insurance stocks.
According to the "Securities Daily" reporter, as of the close of June 10, among the 36 A-share banking and insurance stocks included in the statistics, foreign shareholding in 30 stocks increased compared with December 31 last year. The shareholding increased by more than 10%, and the shareholding of 10 stocks increased by more than 50%.What is particularly notable is that the increase in foreign shareholdings in Bank of Qingdao, PICC and Bank of Suzhou all increased by more than 100%, 182.2%, 161.3% and 102.3% respectively.
foreign investment
Prefer joint-stock banks and city commercial banks
According to the stock-holding records of the Shanghai-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect Central Settlement, the reporter has shown that since the beginning of this year, foreign investors have intensively increased their positions in bancassurance stocks.Among them, the increase in bank stocks is the most obvious.
Among the 31 A-share bank stocks included in the Shanghai-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect, only 5 stocks were reduced by foreign investors during the year, and the other 26 stocks were increased.Among them, as of June 10, foreign investment in 9 bank stocks, namely Bank of Qingdao, Bank of Suzhou, China CITIC Bank, Bank of Guiyang, Bank of Changsha, Bank of Jiangyin, Bank of Zhangjiagang, Bank of Zhengzhou, and Bank of Communications, all increased from the end of last year. over 50%.
In addition, during the year, foreign investment in 9 bank stocks including Bank of Chengdu, Bank of China, Industrial Bank, Agricultural Bank, Bank of Jiangsu, Qingnong Commercial Bank, Bank of Shanghai, Bank of Changshu and Bank of Nanjing increased by between 20% and 50%. .From the perspective of different banking institutions, joint-stock banks and city commercial banks are the key targets for foreign investors to increase their positions.
Judging from the bank shares that were reduced by foreign investors, only five bank shares, namely Bank of Xi'an, China Construction Bank, Bank of Beijing, Zijin Bank and Ping An Bank, were reduced.In general, except for Bank of Xi'an, foreign shareholdings in the other four bank stocks fell by less than 10%.
In the eyes of industry insiders, the negative factors that are currently suppressing the banking sector are gradually clearing up, the downside risk of bank stocks is small, and many positive factors have pushed foreign capital and other funds to buy bank stocks.
Li Shuang, an analyst at Essence Securities, believes that, first of all, the current valuation of bank stocks is at the lowest level in history. With abundant market liquidity and gradual stable operation of the capital market, the downside risk of the banking sector is not large again, and it has absolute returns.Secondly, benefiting from the strong demand for infrastructure credit to drive scale expansion, the regional city commercial banks that are less affected by the epidemic and have relatively reasonable valuations may still have a relatively high price/performance ratio; some rural commercial banks with unique business models are also good allocation choices.Furthermore, for joint-stock banks, the valuation of most banks has been at an absolute low level in the past six years, and the risk points that the market worried about in the early stage have been fully released, but they are subject to slow credit growth, damaged wealth management logic, and real estate credit risk exposure. And other factors, investors are still a little worried about its interim results.
Insurance capital has always been an important institutional investor in bank stocks. Regarding the allocation value and risk of bank stocks, a relevant person in charge of the asset management department of a medium-sized insurance company told the "Securities Daily" reporter that since last year, the real estate industry risks have formed the banking sector. Continued suppression, with the gradual clearing of risks in the real estate sector, the valuation of bank stocks is expected to be repaired. At present, factors that have a greater impact on the trend of the sector include credit policies, repeated epidemics, and macroeconomic growth.In fact, with the gradual clearing of risks, the banking sector has shown some resilience this year.According to Shenwan’s secondary industry classification, as of June 10 this year, large state-owned banks have risen by 4.2%, rural commercial banks by 1.6%, and city commercial banks by 1.2%.
to the Chinese People's Insurance
The increase in positions is as high as 161%
From the perspective of the insurance sector, among the five major A-share insurance stocks, foreign investors have increased their positions in 3, namely China Pacific Insurance, Xinhua Insurance, and PICC.Among them, the increase in PICC was as high as 161.3%.
The insurance sector (shenwan secondary industry classification) fell as much as 38.48% last year.Since the beginning of this year, the insurance sector has fallen again by 12.46%.The lack of improvement in fundamentals is one of the important factors dragging down the insurance sector.
Judging from the premium data, China Life, PICC, Ping An, China Pacific Insurance, and New China Insurance achieved a year-on-year increase of only 3.45% in total premiums in the first four months of this year.Among them, the life insurance business, which has the greatest impact on insurance stocks, continued to slump. The life insurance business of the five major insurance companies increased slightly by 0.25% year-on-year in the first four months, and the two leading life insurance companies experienced negative year-on-year growth.
Judging from the latest operating data, on June 10, two listed insurance companies have disclosed the premium data for the first five months.China Pacific Insurance's original premium income in the first five months increased by 6.7% year-on-year, among which, CPIC Life Insurance increased by 5.1%, and CPIC Property Insurance increased by 9.6%.In the first five months of PICC, the premium income of original insurance increased by 12.86% year-on-year, of which PICC P&C Insurance increased by 10%, PICC Life Insurance increased by 16.8%, and PICC Health increased by 29.5%.On the whole, the life insurance business of the above-mentioned two listed insurance companies is still recovering, and the growth rate of the property insurance business has stabilized and improved.
Since October last year, the property and casualty insurance business of listed insurance companies has shown a bottoming out trend, which is one of the important reasons why PICC has been greatly increased by foreign investors.In the business structure of PICC, the property insurance business accounts for the largest proportion, and PICC P&C is the property insurance company with the highest share of domestic premiums and net profits in recent years.With the recovery of the domestic property and casualty insurance business, it is also the only one of the five major A-share insurance stocks that has gained positive gains during the year.
From the perspective of the future trend of the insurance sector, listed insurance companies, brokerages and other institutions believe that at present, the valuation of insurance stocks is at the bottom of history and has a certain allocation value, but the recovery of the industry, especially the recovery of the life insurance industry, is still affected by the epidemic and industry transformation. factor suppression.
On June 9, at the 2021 annual shareholders meeting of China Pacific Insurance, Su Shaojun, secretary of the board of directors of China Pacific Insurance, said that the overall performance of the insurance sector is not very good, and the current valuation level of China Pacific Insurance's stock price is also at a historically low level. The slowdown, geopolitical tensions and some volatility and emotional impact are also factors that the insurance industry itself is undergoing deep transformation and value reshaping.In addition, at the end of March this year, the management of four listed insurance companies including PICC, China Life Insurance, Ping An and China Pacific Insurance stated at their performance conferences that the current company's share price was undervalued.
Recently, a number of brokerage institutions have also released medium-term strategies for the insurance sector, including Everbright Securities, Orient Securities, Zheshang Securities and other brokerages, saying that at present, the valuation of the insurance sector is at a historically low level and has allocation value.From a fundamental point of view, the property and casualty insurance business continues to improve, while the life insurance business is in a critical period of transformation and needs to "wait for rebirth".(Securities Daily)
