The pace of public fund issuance has noticeably accelerated as we enter 2026. Based on statistics using the fund establishment date as the benchmark, a total of 123 new funds were launched in January, raising an aggregate initial offering size of approximately 120.211 billion yuan. The average fundraising amount per product was close to 1 billion yuan, representing a 39.28% increase compared to the 86.309 billion yuan raised in the same period last year. The dense rollout of new funds within a single month, covering products from equity classes to asset allocation types, sends a more proactive signal from the issuance side, even as the market remains in a phase of bottom consolidation and searching for new leading trends. Structurally, active equity funds continued to be the primary source of incremental new products in January, with 46 such funds launched. These encompassed equity hybrid, flexible allocation, standard equity, and QDII equity hybrid types, collectively raising about 52.717 billion yuan in initial offerings. This figure dwarfs the mere 3.974 billion yuan raised in the same period last year, marking a staggering year-on-year increase of 1,226.55%. The number of index products reached 50, accounting for over 40% of the new funds, with a combined fundraising size of approximately 31.298 billion yuan. Within these index newcomers, the weighting of resources, cyclical sectors, and technology-oriented themes saw a further increase. Meanwhile, 12 FOFs and 13 bond-type products were also established in January, continuing the theme of stable allocation. These provided a window for investors favoring smoothed medium- to long-term returns to establish positions at the start of the year, acting as a stabilizing ballast amid the broader backdrop of recovering risk appetite.
Issuance pace quickens, with active equity and index products competing on equal footing. Analyzing from the dimensions of quantity and scale, the issuance rhythm of new funds in January was relatively intense. Based on the fund establishment date, 123 new funds were densely launched within the month, raising a total of approximately 120.2 billion yuan in initial offerings. Among these, about 37% were active equity products, approximately 41% were index products, with the remainder comprised of FOFs and bond-type products. New products in the equity space advanced simultaneously from both active and passive management approaches, offering investors tools for stock selection and sector rotation, as well as more standardized, transparent index-based allocation instruments. Within the active equity camp, the 46 products collectively raised about 52.7 billion yuan, averaging over 1.1 billion yuan per fund. Notably, GF Fund's GF Research Intelligent Selection Mixed, managed by prominent fund manager Yang Dong, led the month with an initial offering size of around 7.2 billion yuan. Other funds like Huabao Advantage Industry Mixed and Morgan Stanley Shanghai-Hong Kong-Shenzhen Technology Mixed also raised over 4 billion yuan each, while products such as Quanguo Competitive Edge Mixed and E Fund Balanced Selection also posted commendable fundraising performances. Channel sources observed that among the recent active equity launches, some continue existing strategies, while others supplement offerings targeting emerging industries and Hong Kong stock opportunities, with the issuance pace increasingly emphasizing alignment with the fund managers' established investment frameworks. On the index product side, 50 index and enhanced index funds were launched collectively in January, raising a total initial offering size of about 31.3 billion yuan. Beyond conventional broad-based and style indices, sector-themed ETFs and feeder funds focusing on areas like non-ferrous metals, power utilities, shipbuilding, new energy, as well as Hong Kong Connect technology and internet sectors, were particularly prominent. Drilling down to specific products, ETFs such as Invesco Great Wall CSI All Share Power Utilities ETF, Fullgoal CSI Intelligent Selected Shipbuilding Industry ETF, and Tianhong and Penghua's respective CSI Industrial Non-ferrous Metals Theme ETFs all achieved initial fundraising sizes around 1 billion yuan or higher, signaling a growing willingness among capital to position in resource and cyclical chains. From an overall asset allocation perspective, FOFs and bond-type products continued to play a stabilizing role. The 12 FOFs raised a combined total of approximately 19.943 billion yuan, averaging over 1.6 billion yuan per fund. Products like ICBC Yingtai Stable 6-Month Holding, Fullgoal Zhihui Stable 3-Month Holding, and GF Yueying Stable Three-Month Holding each raised over 3 billion yuan. The 13 bond-type products contributed about 15.264 billion yuan in initial offerings, primarily concentrated in medium-to-long-term pure bonds and bond-heavy hybrid categories.
The increase in single-day fundraising closures highlights a rush to capture the year-opening position-building window. If the product structure reflects medium- to long-term allocation thinking, the frequent occurrence of single-day fundraising completions demonstrates warming investor sentiment at the start of the year. Statistics show that 16 new funds achieved single-day fundraising closures in January, spanning sub-categories including bond-heavy hybrid, FOFs, index funds, and equity hybrid funds. In terms of size, BOC Zhao Xiang 6-Month Holding and Wanjia Qitai Stable Three-Month Holding were the most representative, raising approximately 2.388 billion yuan and 2.099 billion yuan respectively, both completing their fundraising on the first day. Additionally, resource-themed index newcomers like Penghua CSI Industrial Non-ferrous Metals Theme ETF, as well as equity products such as Rayon Research Balanced Three-Year Holding, Yongwin Industry Opportunity Intelligent Selection, and Orient Hongtai Consumption Research Selection, also chose to complete fundraising on their first day, with individual initial offering sizes ranging from hundreds of millions to tens of millions of yuan. In the view of many industry insiders, single-day closures are not merely a label of capital追捧. A head of public fund sales in East China stated directly that market expectations at the year's start are concentrated on a few key themes, leading investors to prefer allocating capital in a lump sum during the window to trusted fund managers or strategies. Fund companies, in turn, aim to complete position-building swiftly to avoid missing market rhythms due to prolonged fundraising periods. For "fixed-income plus" and short-to-medium duration products, single-day closures also help lock in yield ranges quickly while interest rates and credit spreads are relatively certain. Concurrently, the fundraising schedules for leading active equity products were also highly targeted. Taking GF Research Intelligent Selection Mixed as an example, this fund completed its issuance in mid-to-late January over a 10-day period, raising over 7.2 billion yuan and becoming the month's fundraising champion. An equity investment professional analyzed that such products often leverage existing star portfolios or mature research frameworks, already having a recognition base among channels and investors. Coupled with the current valuation window offering attractive性价比, they can easily achieve significant fundraising volumes in a short time.
Which themes were being positioned in January? The thematic shifts among January's new fund launches are also noteworthy. In terms of product count, nearly 30 new funds targeted technology-related sectors, covering both active equity and index categories, with a combined initial offering size of approximately 25.9 billion yuan. Resource and cyclical theme-related products numbered around 9, raising about 6.8 billion yuan, with high concentration in sub-sectors like non-ferrous metals, power utilities, and shipbuilding. In the technology direction, active equity newcomers like Morgan Stanley Shanghai-Hong Kong-Shenzhen Technology Mixed, HTFF Technology Leadership Mixed, and ICBC Technology Intelligent Selection Mixed continued the in-depth research focus on growth sectors seen previously. Index products such as Rongtong SSE STAR Market Composite Index Enhanced, Guotai SSE STAR Market 200 ETF, Ping An Hang Seng Hong Kong Connect Technology Theme ETF, and Baoying Hang Seng Tech Index provided investors with more targeted selection tools from both the STAR Market and Hong Kong tech stock dimensions. The concentrated issuance of several SSE STAR Market chip design and artificial intelligence theme ETFs in January made the expression of the "chips plus computing power" combination more complete within the public fund product line. The resources and cyclical sectors were prominently represented through a group of notable ETFs. Examples launched in January include the CSI All Share Power Utilities ETFs from Invesco Great Wall and Huabao, Fullgoal CSI Intelligent Selected Shipbuilding Industry ETF, the Industrial Non-ferrous Metals Theme ETFs from Tianhong and Penghua, Taikang CSI Non-ferrous Metal Mining Theme ETF, and ICBC ChiNext New Energy ETF. A quantitative private fund professional pointed out that many quantitative models are currently increasing position weights assigned to low-valuation resource stocks and utilities. The listing of a batch of sector-specific ETFs facilitates more precise expression of views on the cyclical sector within strategies. It is noteworthy that the issuance of many thematic products is not an isolated event but echoes the overall product strategy of fund companies. Taking the technology direction as an example, several companies that already had technology leader or semiconductor-related products continued to fill out their offerings along themes like technology, the STAR Market, and AI in January, launching broad-based enhanced and sector index products to form an integrated active-plus-passive allocation toolkit. Within the resource camp, the密集 issuance of power utilities and non-ferrous metals theme ETFs emphasizes their role as defensive yet elastic components in medium- to long-term asset portfolios.
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