China announced plans on Thursday to channel hundreds of billions of yuan of investment from state-owned insurers into shares as part of the government's latest efforts to support a struggling stock market.

China is guiding local mutual funds and insurers to boost their stock purchases in the government’s latest initiative to shore up its ailing equity market as it confronts the threat of higher tariffs.

Starting this year, 30 per cent of the annual insurance premium from new policies will be put into yuan-denominated A shares, regulator Wu Qing said.