The "2026 Sina Global Capital Summit," hosted by Sina Finance, was grandly held in Hong Kong, China, on July 16. The summit, themed "Rooted in Hong Kong, Vision for the World," brought together global leaders from politics, business, academia, and research for in-depth discussions on key topics including global capital market trends, cross-border fund allocation, and technology companies expanding overseas.
The event featured a distinguished lineup of speakers from senior government officials, international financial institutions, top investment banks, leading industry players, and academic pioneers. Participants engaged in high-level dialogues on new directions in the global financial landscape.
Ms. Yvonne Wu, Director, Chief Executive Officer, and Head of Client Coverage at Hang Seng Indexes Company Limited, participated in a roundtable discussion.
Wu stated that the core demand of mainland investors for index and ETF products can be summarized with one keyword: "thematic." From January to September last year, the Assets Under Management (AUM) growth rate for thematic ETFs in mainland China reached 40%, while the growth rate for broad-based index ETFs was only 15% during the same period. Currently, Hang Seng Indexes has 98 ETFs listed in mainland China, with 86% of the AUM coming from thematic index products. This data indicates that thematic investing has become the mainstream choice for mainland investors when allocating Hong Kong stock assets.
Looking at specific thematic directions, mainland investors primarily focus on two key areas: growth and income. Within the growth theme, technology and biotechnology/pharmaceuticals are the two core sub-sectors. For technology, the total AUM of ETFs in mainland China tracking various technology indices has exceeded 200 billion yuan. Beyond the flagship Hang Seng Tech Index, indices focusing on internet & information technology and Stock Connect technology themes also receive significant market attention. In the biotech/pharma sector, there are 20 ETFs in mainland China tracking different biotech indices, four of which were newly launched this year, with a combined AUM of approximately 25 billion yuan, showing a growth of about 18 times over the past three years.
Regarding the income theme, high-dividend strategies are also favored by mainland investors. Wu illustrated this with an example of an ETF tracking the Hang Seng High Dividend Yield Index: the AUM of this ETF rapidly increased from 1.9 billion to 5 billion yuan within two months after its inclusion in the ETF Connect scheme and has recently been maintained at around 5.5 billion yuan.
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