China's securities regulators on Friday authorized the country's biggest life insurer to issue A-shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

China Life Insurance, which has already been listed on the New York and Hong Kong stock exchanges, plans to issue up to 1.5 billion A-shares , raising around 27 billion yuan (about 3.45 billion U.S. dollars).

China Life will be the first local insurance company to list shares on the domestic bourse.

By the end of June 2006, the total assets of China Life were valued at 617 billion yuan.

Encouraged by the bullish performance of the mainland stock market, some profitable Chinese companies that have been listed overseas have returned or are planning to return to their home market for public offering.

On Friday, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index hit an all-time high, rising 1.1 percent to close at 2,273.91 points.

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