Top Favored ETFs

The operations of the "national team" Central Huijin have always been a focal point of market attention. Recently, with the disclosure of the third-quarter fund reports, the situation of Central Huijin's increased holdings in ETFs has come to light.

According to statistics from the third-quarter fund reports, Central Huijin Investment Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Central Huijin Investment") remained "unmoved" in the third quarter, while Central Huijin Asset Management Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Central Huijin Assets") significantly increased its holdings in 4 CSI 300 ETFs during the third quarter. Calculated at the end-of-period prices, the cumulative amount of increased holdings exceeded 270 billion yuan.

In addition, although the quarterly report did not disclose the names of the institutions that increased their holdings, industry insiders speculate that Central Huijin Assets also increased its holdings in 2 SSE 50 ETFs and 4 CSI 1000 ETFs. Calculated at the end-of-period prices of the aforementioned 6 ETFs, the cumulative amount of increased holdings is nearly 80 billion yuan.

"The 'national team' invested heavily in various ETFs in the third quarter, greatly boosting market confidence and stabilizing market trends, providing substantial financial support for the current market's stabilization and recovery," said Yang Delong, Chief Economist of Qianhai Open Source Fund, in an interview with a reporter.

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Significant Increase in CSI 300 ETF Holdings

In the third quarter, ETFs were the most sought-after variety in the market, with their scale growing from 2.47 trillion yuan at the end of the second quarter to 3.5 trillion yuan at the end of the third quarter, an increase of 1.03 trillion yuan, or a 41.70% increase. Among them, the scale of stock ETFs at the end of the third quarter was 2.74 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.93 trillion yuan from 1.81 trillion yuan at the end of the second quarter, a 51.38% increase.

The "national team" Central Huijin contributed significantly to this.

Since the fourth quarter of 2023, the "national team" has mainly been saving the market by buying ETFs through Central Huijin. The main forces of the "national team," Central Huijin, have two main accounts: Central Huijin Investment and Central Huijin Assets, collectively referred to as "Central Huijin" below.

Taking the end-of-2023 data as an example, Central Huijin held a total of 43.812 billion ETF shares, with a holding market value of 117.695 billion yuan calculated at the end-of-period prices.

Data shows that as of the end of the first half of 2024, the "national team" including Central Huijin Investment and Central Huijin Assets held approximately 228.66 billion shares of stock ETFs, with a market value of about 583.8 billion yuan; in the first half of the year, they increased by about 184.8 billion shares, with a market value of about 464.6 billion yuan.In the third quarter, Central Huijin continued to aggressively purchase ETFs.

"According to the fund reports for the third quarter of 2024, Central Huijin and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Central Huijin Asset Management Co., Ltd., continued to significantly increase their holdings of ETFs in the third quarter," said Bi Mengxiao, a researcher at Ge Shang Financial Management, to the reporter.

Since the quarterly report only discloses situations where a single investor's holding of fund shares reaches or exceeds 20%, the 21st Century Economic Report journalist, by combining the 2024 semi-annual report and the 2024 third-quarter report, found that in the third quarter, Central Huijin's investment was "unchanged," with no signs of subscription or redemption operations. In contrast, according to data changes, it is estimated that Central Huijin Assets may have increased holdings in 10 ETFs in the third quarter.

Specifically, the ETFs that Central Huijin Assets has confirmed to have increased holdings in include four of the largest Shanghai-Shenzhen 300 ETFs: Huatai-Pine Shanghai-Shenzhen 300 ETF with approximately 25.893 billion shares, Yifangda Shanghai-Shenzhen 300 ETF with approximately 38.637 billion shares, Huaxia Shanghai-Shenzhen 300 ETF with approximately 11.474 billion shares, and Harvest Shanghai-Shenzhen 300 ETF with approximately 9.484 billion shares.

In addition, six ETFs that industry insiders speculate may have been increased by Central Huijin Assets are: Huaxia SSE 50 ETF with approximately 11.785 billion shares, Southern Zhongzheng 1000 ETF with approximately 7.557 billion shares, Huaxia Zhongzheng 1000 ETF with approximately 5.123 billion shares, GF Zhongzheng 1000 ETF with approximately 4.236 billion shares, Fu Gu Zhongzheng 1000 ETF with approximately 1.461 billion shares, and Yifangda SSE 50 ETF with approximately 0.44 billion shares.

Based on the closing prices at the end of the period (September 30), the estimated amounts that Central Huijin Assets may have increased in the aforementioned 10 ETFs are: 109.605 billion yuan, 78.8 billion yuan, 49.568 billion yuan, 41.075 billion yuan, 34.283 billion yuan, 18.054 billion yuan, 12.147 billion yuan, 10.014 billion yuan, 3.46 billion yuan, and 0.616 billion yuan, totaling approximately 357.621 billion yuan.

Bi Mengxiao introduced that, compared with the semi-annual report and the third-quarter report, Central Huijin Investment had no investment operations in the third quarter, with no signs of subscription or redemption operations for ETFs, and the original fund shares remained unchanged. However, as the fund's net value climbed, the total market value of the mainstream ETFs held exceeded 590 billion yuan.

Central Huijin Assets, on the other hand, significantly increased its holdings of Shanghai-Shenzhen 300 Index ETFs in the third quarter, with a cumulative increase of more than 270 billion yuan in products such as the Shanghai-Shenzhen 300 ETFs under Yifangda, Huaxia, Huatai-Pine, and Harvest funds, and currently holds a total market value of mainstream ETFs exceeding 350 billion yuan.

Based on this calculation, Bi Mengxiao stated that as of the end of September, the total market value of mainstream stock ETFs held by "national team" members such as Central Huijin Investment and Central Huijin Assets exceeded 940 billion yuan, which is more than 8 times the total market value of holdings at the end of last year.

If we further consider the six other ETFs that are suspected to have been increased by Central Huijin Assets, then the market value of ETFs held by Central Huijin at the end of the third quarter may have reached 1 trillion yuan.Broad-based ETFs Gain Favor

According to the third-quarter reports, Central Huijin Assets has increased its holdings in 4 of the largest Shanghai-Shenzhen 300 ETFs on the market.

Additionally, 6 other ETFs that are suspected to have been increased by Central Huijin Assets include 2 Shanghai 50 ETFs and 4 Zhongzheng 1000 ETFs.

Furthermore, since the quarterly reports only disclose the proportion of fund shares held by a single investor that reaches or exceeds 20% at the end of the period, there are still many "national team" investments in ETFs that have not yet emerged.

The "national team" Central Huijin's investment in ETFs in the third quarter mainly focused on large and mid-cap ETFs such as the Shanghai-Shenzhen 300, and also invested in small and mid-cap index ETFs such as the Zhongzheng 500 and Zhongzheng 1000, playing a role in stabilizing the market and having a significant impact on it.

From the quarterly report data, Central Huijin's increase in the third quarter was mainly concentrated on broad-based ETFs, especially large-cap blue-chip index funds such as the Shanghai-Shenzhen 300 ETF and the Shanghai 50 ETF. In terms of the types of ETFs increased, Central Huijin is more inclined towards low-valuation value targets.

For investors, the national team's investment is a weathervane. Yang Delong stated that for investors, the national team provides a good investment reference, and the broad-based ETFs that the national team focuses on investing in can represent the overall market trend.

Relevant persons believe that Central Huijin's increase in the market during the turbulent period may be seen as a signal of the market bottom, thereby triggering investors to follow suit and buy. As the "national team," Central Huijin's substantial increase in ETFs has injected confidence into the market, which is conducive to stabilizing market sentiment. Led by Central Huijin, a large amount of funds continue to enter the market through ETFs, making ETFs the most important source of incremental public equity funds.