Jan. 9, 2012 (China Knowledge) - Central Huijin Investment Co, the investment arm of China's sovereign wealth fund, further raised its stake in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China or ICBC<601398><1398> to 35.43%, the sources reported.

The report said that Huijin bought 38.47 million more shares of ICBC, the world's biggest lender by market value, after its purchase of 14.58 million shares on October 10, 2011.

At the end of 2011, Huijin held 123.69 billion shares of the Chinese lender.

The report also said that Ping An Life Insurance Co spent about RMB 2.1 billion to buy 500 million ICBC shares in the fourth quarter of last year, after purchasing 118 million shares of the lender in the third quarter.

Analysts expected that the banking industry in China will maintain a 20% growth this year.