September 26 marks the first anniversary of the CSI A500 ETF's establishment.
One year ago on September 26, the first batch of CSI A500 ETFs was launched, officially beginning the growth journey of a new generation of large-cap broad-based funds.
Looking back from this anniversary milestone, the growth story of CSI A500 ETF has been quite remarkable. On September 23, 2024, the CSI A500 Index was officially released. Just one day later, on September 24, 2024, A-shares reached an important turning point as a comprehensive financial policy package was announced, launching the "9.24" market rally.
Over the past year, CSI A500 ETF has not only witnessed the ecological reshaping of China's capital market toward a "slow bull" and "long bull" trend, but also provided new options for household wealth management and medium-to-long-term capital market entry.
Let's first examine the one-year performance scorecard of CSI A500 ETF (159338).
In terms of returns, since its listing on October 15, 2024, through September 25, 2025, CSI A500 ETF achieved on-exchange gains of 21.03%, while the CSI 300 Index rose 15.96% during the same period. CSI A500 ETF outperformed the CSI 300 Index by over 5 percentage points.
In terms of profits, during the first half of 2025, CSI A500 ETF generated approximately 462 million yuan in profits for investors, truly delivering real returns in a market characterized by structural opportunities.
Excellent performance and profit generation naturally attracted more investors. As of September 25, CSI A500 ETF reached a latest scale of 21.6 billion yuan, with cumulative trading volume of approximately 677.4 billion yuan, serving over 510,000 clients and continuously gaining followers through solid performance.
Who are the buyers of CSI A500 ETF?
First, institutional investors. According to the 2025 interim report, the top 10 holders of CSI A500 ETF are exclusively institutional investors, with insurance funds - traditionally focused on stable allocations - holding the dominant position, followed by securities firms' proprietary trading accounts. Based on shareholding changes, these funds have been very stable with virtually no signs of large inflows or outflows.
2025 Interim Report
(Data source: Fund periodic reports, data as of June 30, 2025)
In recent years, policies have encouraged medium-to-long-term capital market entry. Medium-to-long-term funds represented by insurance and bank wealth management chose to allocate to CSI A500 ETF mainly because its product characteristics highly align with their long-term, stable, and efficient investment needs. Allocation to CSI A500 ETF also helps capture growth dividends from China's economic transformation and new quality productive forces.
Second, retail investors have also made significant contributions. The balanced offensive and defensive characteristics of CSI A500 ETF well match retail investors' asset allocation needs. According to the 2025 interim report, this product is the only one among 32 CSI A500 ETF products with over 100,000 holders, with retail investors accounting for nearly 34%, demonstrating a solid "mass base."
CSI A500 ETF's ability to attract both institutional and retail investors stems from its tracking index's scientific construction methodology and product characteristics that meet market demands.
Unlike the CSI 300 Index, which primarily selects stocks based on market capitalization, the CSI A500 Index maintains traditional broad-based index screening standards of market value and trading volume while incorporating multiple considerations such as ESG evaluation and industry-neutral strategies.
Additionally, it optimizes selection of industry leaders. Companies ranking in the top two by market capitalization as of June 30, 2025, within each CSI tertiary industry are defined as "industry leaders." Results show that the A500 Index covers leaders from 91% of CSI tertiary industries, while the CSI 300 Index covers leaders from 65% of CSI tertiary industries.
In terms of industry weights, the CSI A500 Index also has higher new quality productive forces content than CSI 300. The CSI A500 Index reduces weight by approximately 12.51% in non-bank financial + banking + food and beverage sectors compared to CSI 300, distributing this evenly to other emerging industries.
At the State Council Information Office press conference on September 22 this year, CSRC Chairman Wu Qing stated that A-share technology sector market capitalization currently accounts for over one-quarter of the total, significantly higher than the combined market capitalization of banking, non-bank financial, and real estate sectors. The CSI A500's construction design incorporating more emerging sector leaders can be said to better align with current market characteristics and have stronger representativeness for A-shares.
Furthermore, the balanced offensive-defensive characteristics of the CSI A500 Index are also reasons for continued capital inflows in structural markets. The CSI A500 Index includes approximately 50% traditional value industries (finance, materials, consumer goods, energy, utilities) and approximately 50% emerging growth industries (industrials, information technology, communication services, healthcare).
Balanced industry allocation allows the CSI A500 Index to adapt to different market styles. Comparing annual performance over the past twenty years, A500 performed better when growth style dominated and did not significantly underperform when value style dominated.
For example: During the growth style period of 2020-2021, it achieved an average annual excess return of 4.94% relative to CSI 300; during the value style period of 2022-2024, it achieved an average annual excess return of -0.89% relative to CSI 300.
Data source: Wind, as of December 31, 2024. Short-term index fluctuations are for reference only; historical performance does not predict future results.
How should we view the investment value of CSI A500 ETF?
From valuation metrics, as of September 25, 2025, the CSI A500 Index had a TTM P/E ratio of 16.79 and P/B ratio of 1.69. Considering the higher proportion of technology innovation and high-end manufacturing companies in its constituent stocks, current valuations still maintain a certain safety margin. From market characteristics perspective, current markets show rapid rotation and structural opportunities, where broad-based indices offer unique diversification advantages. From policy perspective, as artificial intelligence and other new quality productive forces continue advancing, they will become new engines for China's medium-to-long-term economic growth, potentially driving sustained expansion of emerging industries. With economic stabilization and recovery, pro-cyclical industries face development opportunities. The CSI A500 Index, with higher new quality productive forces content and more balanced industries, is expected to benefit continuously.
Additionally, to better meet different investors' needs, Cathay Fund Management continues to improve the CSI A500 ETF product matrix. For investors without stock accounts, they can choose Cathay CSI A500 Feeder Fund (Class A 022448, Class C 022449, Class I 022610), with no redemption fees for holdings over 7 days, providing one-click access to China's core assets.
Risk Warnings
Profit data source: Fund 2025 interim report; other data sources: Cathay Fund Management, Wind. Latest scale data as of September 25, 2025; scale varies with market changes and is for reference only. Cumulative trading volume and cumulative client service data cover the period from September 26, 2024, to September 25, 2025. Index and fund short-term performance does not predict future performance. 2024 and first half 2025 performance and benchmark performance are as follows: Cathay CSI A500 Exchange Traded Fund (established September 26, 2024, benchmark: CSI A500 Index return, managed by Huang Yue since inception): -4.62%/17.06%; 1.66%/0.47%
Risk Warning: Views are for reference only and will change with market conditions; they do not constitute investment advice. China's stock market has a relatively short establishment history; historical performance does not represent performance guarantees. CSI A500 ETF is an equity fund with theoretically higher expected returns and risk levels than hybrid funds, bond funds, and money market funds. This fund is an index fund primarily using full replication strategy to track the CSI A500 Index; its risk-return characteristics are similar to those of the market portfolio represented by the benchmark index. Before making investment decisions, investors should carefully read the fund's prospectus and fund contract, fully consider their own risk tolerance, and invest prudently. Fund investment involves risks; invest carefully. Past index performance does not constitute promises or guarantees for fund performance. Dollar-cost averaging is a simple investment method that guides investors toward long-term investment and cost averaging. However, dollar-cost averaging cannot avoid inherent risks of fund investment, cannot guarantee investor returns, and is not an equivalent wealth management alternative to savings.
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