China's state-owned Central Huijin Investment Ltd. increased its equity holding in Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (ICBC), the bank said Friday.

Central Huijin's holding in ICBC, the country's largest lender, stood at 123.69 billion shares, or 35.43 percent of the bank's total, as of Dec. 31, 2011, according to a statement ICBC filed with stock exchanges in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

According to the statement, Central Huijin bought 38.47 million more shares after boosting its stake in ICBC by 14.58 million A-shares on Oct. 10 last year.

Ping An, China's second-largest insurer, also increased its holding in ICBC by 500 million shares in the fourth quarter of 2011 at a cost of 2.1 billion yuan (332.46 million U.S. dollars), following an increase of 118 million shares in the third quarter of last year, ICBC said.

Central Huijin was established in 2003 to hold the Chinese government's stakes in banks and insurance companies.

The dual-listed ICBC rose 0.71 percent to close at 4.28 yuan per share in Shanghai but dipped 0.63 percent to 4.71 Hong Kong dollars on Friday.