(Yicai) July 5 -- Almost three-quarters of Chinese insurers' asset portfolios were profitable in the first half amid rising bonds, Securities Daily reported today, citing Wind data.

Among the 1,010 asset management products with information disclosure, almost 750 recorded returns as of June 30, and the median rate of return is 3.1 percent.

The big group has over 670 fixed-income products, and nearly 90 percent of them were profitable with a median rate of return of 3.4 percent but the highest was 29 percent.

Insurance companies may continue to hike their allocation of capital to bonds, industry professionals told the news source.

In the first half, wealth management, bonds, and insurance assets entered a new round of expansion, an industry insider said, adding that the bond market remained bullish as the macroeconomic and funding environment is friendly to debt financing, and this is one of the reasons behind the good returns of fixed-income products.

In the second half, the risk of declining yields in the long term is not big even when taking into account possible impacts from policy factors such as an intervention by the central bank, said Feng Lin, a senior analyst at Golden Credit Rating.

Equity portfolios were lagging behind. The group of 1,010 had 180 equity products, some 44 percent of which were profitable.

In the first six months of this year, mainland-listed shares were volatile, an investment insider at a life insurer said. Insurance companies chose relatively different strategies as some maintained low positions and others increased their holdings and such divergence is expected to continue in the second half as they are likely to boost their positions in equities despite their solvency pressures, the source added.

Corrections in the equity market are done for now, said Lu Xiaoyue, co-founder of asset manager Yanshu. Blue chip stocks prove to generate value in the long run and insurers are keen to widen their equity positions, Lu added.

Editor: Emmi Laine