A Day of 11 "Mini Hit" Funds: New Fund Issuance Heating Up Again

Securities Times Reporter Yu Shipeng

On March 18, fund announcements showed that a total of 11 “hot” funds (including different share classes) with a scale exceeding 1 billion yuan were established in the market, among which active equity funds and FOFs (funds of funds) accounted for 7, continuing the trend of strong issuance.

As of March 18, the number of active equity funds raised over 1 billion yuan this year has reached 34, accounting for more than 35% of the total active equity funds established this year; there are 22 FOFs with a scale over 1 billion yuan, making up 50% of the total funds launched this year.

Large-scale fundraising has brought about two changes: first, the effective number of subscription accounts for active equity funds has returned to levels seen before October 2021; second, driven by multiple products selling out in a single day, the total scale of FOFs has for the first time surpassed 300 billion yuan.

34 Active Equity Funds Raised Over 1 Billion Yuan This Year

According to Wind data, on March 18, seven active equity funds were established (including ordinary stock funds and hybrid funds with a bias towards stocks), of which five raised over 1 billion yuan. The largest among them is Industrial Bank’s Zhenxuan Return, with a fundraising scale of 3.499 billion yuan. Following is Invesco Great Wall Trust’s You Growth, with 2.592 billion yuan. The other three are E Fund Research Intelligent Selection, Bank of Communications Yuanjian Select, and Ping An JiuRui Return, with scales of 1.732 billion yuan, 1.593 billion yuan, and 1.187 billion yuan, respectively.

Including these five funds, the number of active equity funds with a scale over 1 billion yuan since 2026 has reached 34, accounting for over 35% of all active equity funds established this year. In terms of scale, nine active equity funds have raised over 3 billion yuan, with GF Research Intelligent Hybrid ranking first at 7.221 billion yuan. Three funds—Yongying Ruitian Growth, Huabao Advantage Industry, and Yinhua Smart Share—each have raised over 5 billion yuan.

In fact, the issuance of active equity funds began to recover in 2025, but the total number of funds raising over 1 billion yuan that year was only 55, out of 303 similar products established, accounting for less than 20%. The largest single fund’s fundraising was close to 5 billion yuan. This indicates that since 2026, investor subscription activity for active equity funds has become more vigorous.

This trend is also reflected in subscription account numbers. Since 2025, the top ten funds by subscription accounts are all newly established products since 2026. For example, Yongying Ruitian Growth, established on March 10, raised 5.867 billion yuan and attracted 230,400 valid subscriptions, the highest among active equity funds established since October 2021.

Total FOF Scale Surpasses 300 Billion Yuan for the First Time

Among various fund products, FOFs are the second most popular public funds after active equity funds. On March 18, four FOF funds were established, with two raising over 1 billion yuan. For instance, Wanjia Run’an Stable 3-Month Holding FOF raised 1.366 billion yuan with 4,162 valid subscriptions, and Invesco Great Wall and Xirui An 3-Month Holding Hybrid FOF raised 1.363 billion yuan with 8,162 subscriptions.

Including these two, since 2026, 22 FOFs have raised over 1 billion yuan, out of 44 FOFs issued this year. This means that FOFs with a scale over 1 billion yuan account for 50%. In comparison, in 2025, 89 FOFs were established, with 25 raising over 1 billion yuan, making the proportion less than 30%.

Looking at fundraising scales, the largest FOF this year is Bosera Ying Tai Zhenxuan 6-Month Holding FOF, with 5.844 billion yuan, launched in early February. The second is China Europe Ying Xin Stable 6-Month Holding FOF, established on March 13, with 5.125 billion yuan. Other notable funds include ICBC Ying Tai Stable 6-Month Holding FOF and GF Wealth Wisdom Stable 3-Month Holding FOF, each exceeding 4 billion yuan.

The FOF issuance boom this year is also reflected in two aspects: first, 10 of the 22 FOFs raising over 1 billion yuan sold out in a single day, including the largest, Bosera Ying Tai Zhenxuan 6-Month Holding FOF; second, driven by multiple “hot” products, the overall scale of FOFs has surpassed 300 billion yuan for the first time since their inception in 2017.

According to Huaxia Fund, the recent FOF boom is related to three factors:

1. Over 50 trillion yuan of residents’ medium- and long-term fixed deposits mature in 2026. Against the backdrop of declining deposit interest rates and low yields on traditional financial products, FOFs have become an important tool to absorb these funds.

2. In a low-interest-rate environment, FOFs can effectively allocate assets across stocks, bonds, commodities, and overseas markets, with more diversified and dispersed assets potentially smoothing volatility.

3. Performance has significantly rebounded, boosting investment confidence. As of March 10, the Wind FOF Index has increased by 12.69% over the past year, outperforming the same period’s Wind Bond Fund Index.

Fund Managers: Focus on Earnings Recovery and Flexibility in A-shares

Whether active equity funds or FOFs, ultimately, they channel investments into the entire capital market. From this perspective, the pursuit of new funds by investors is essentially driven by investment expectations.

Morgan Stanley Fund told Securities Times that recent gains in major indices have been somewhat limited this year, mainly affected by Middle East tensions, but from an index perspective, this has not had a significant impact on A-shares. Investors’ tilt toward oil, gas assets, and defensive sectors has provided clear support to the indices. The main future directions are expected to be upstream price increases, energy security, and AI chains. The development trend of the AI industry is highly correlated with the stability of private equity credit markets. Over the past few weeks, AI’s impact on software has led to redemption pressures on private equity credit funds, mainly affecting valuations of global AI assets. However, performance logic remains strong, with OpenClaw’s popularity causing a surge in token demand and a tenfold increase in domestic platform calls.

Fuguo Fund believes that, under the gradual recovery of the domestic economy and the policy orientation of “stability with progress, quality improvement, and efficiency enhancement,” market structural opportunities may continue. In the short term, the upcoming intensive disclosure of annual and first-quarter reports of listed companies, along with rising prices and earnings, could serve as key factors for capturing structural opportunities. Comparing the profit cycle of the CSI 300 and the price cycle, both tend to move in sync. Improvements in prices will influence the elasticity of profit recovery in A-shares and, consequently, the index level.

“From a mid-term industry trend perspective, technology remains one of the main themes in A-shares, with AI being a core internal theme within the tech sector,” said Yang Fei, Deputy Director of Equity Investment at Penghua Fund, in an interview with Securities Times. He identified three promising directions within the tech industry over the next month: domestic storage capacity, domestic computing power, and new AI technologies. Domestic storage capacity benefits from supply shortages and explosive growth in AI demand, favoring storage chip design and storage devices; domestic computing power benefits from significant changes in AI capital expenditure and explosive growth in AI inference, favoring AI chip design (including ASIC, GPU, CPU) and CDN; new AI technologies mainly refer to innovations in chip architecture and server network architecture, including new storage software and CPO.

(Edited by: Wen Jing)