Qualified foreign institutional investors (QFIIs) have overtaken securities dealers as the second largest investor group in the Renminbi-dominated A-share market, making them second only to security funds, according to China's third-quarter report of listed companies.

Statistics show QFIIs owned an equity value of more than 24 billion yuan (US$three billion) in 214 listed companies, a steady growth from 20.1 billion yuan in 194 companies in the first six months.

Securities dealers followed QFIIs with 20.5 billion yuan of investment, down from 22 billion yuan in the first half of the year.

Security funds topped the list with an equity value of more than 200 billion yuan, while insurance companies ranked fourth with 20 billion yuan.

Most QFIIs had increased their security holdings to more than 90 percent of their A-share targeted funds, which took up nearly a quarter of their total investment quotas, said Zhou Liang, senior research analyst with Lipper, a global provider of fund information and analysis.

China has granted a total investment quota of US$8.24 billion to 41 QFII companies since 2003, when the government launched the QFII program to allow foreign investment banks, insurance companies and annuity funds to enter domestic capital market. Twelve other companies have gained QFII status, but have yet to receive quotas.

The largest investment quota went to the banking giant UBS, which spent US$525 million of its 800-million-dollar quota on the A-share market, according to the report.
The report shows shares in metal and machinery manufacturing as well as the financial sector had the greatest appeal to QFIIs in the third quarter, with investment in financial shares growing from the mid-year 1.3 billion yuan to 4.7 billion yuan.