In the first half of 2025, “National Team” investor Central Huijin and its subsidiary boosted their stock ETF holdings to a new record high, sending a signal of confidence in China’s capital market.
Central Huijin mainly holds ETFs through two entities: Central Huijin Investment Ltd. and Central Huijin Asset Management Ltd. In addition, Central Huijin Asset Management Ltd. has also set up two single asset management plans via China Asset Management (ChinaAMC) and E Fund Management.
According to data compiled based on public funds’ first-half financial reports, as of the end of June, Central Huijin Investment Ltd. and its subsidiary, Central Huijin Asset Management Co., Ltd., together held stock ETFs (exchange-traded funds) worth 1.28 trillion yuan, an increase of nearly 23% compared with the end of last year, marking a new record high.
Notably, Central Huijin Asset Management significantly increased its holdings of stock ETFs. By the end of June, the number of ETFs held was 1.58 times that at the end of last year, with multiple broad-based ETFs seeing increases of more than 1 billion units.
As of June 30, Central Huijin Asset Management appeared on the list of the top ten shareholders of 15 ETFs, with a total of 178.514 billion ETF units. Based on net asset values as of June 30, its ETF holdings were worth 612.348 billion yuan.
Central Huijin Asset Management significantly increased its positions in 12 broad-based ETFs, with a combined addition of 65.886 billion units. Among these, it added 11.237 billion units of the Huatai-PineBridge CSI 300 ETF, 9.445 billion units of the ChinaAMC CSI 300 ETF, and more than 8 billion units each of the E Fund CSI 300 ETF and the ChinaAMC SSE 50 ETF. It also increased holdings of the Harvest CSI 300 ETF and the Southern CSI 1000 ETF by more than 5 billion units each.
As for Central Huijin Investment Ltd., as of June 30, it held 21 ETFs in total, with combined holdings of 197.12 billion units. Of these, holdings of the Huatai-PineBridge CSI 300 ETF, the ChinaAMC SSE 50 ETF, the E Fund CSI 300 ETF, and the ChinaAMC CSI 300 ETF all exceeded 20 billion units each. Based on fund net asset values, as of June 30, its ETF holdings were worth 667.745 billion yuan.
Notably, Central Huijin Investment’s holdings unchanged from the end of last year, and Central Huijin Asset Management was the key force increasing ETF holdings during the first half.
Looking at the holdings of Central Huijin’s single asset management plans, the “E Fund – Central Huijin Asset Management Single Asset Management Plan” appeared on the top ten shareholder lists of 10 ETFs, with a total of 4.6 billion units, worth about 6.4 billion yuan. The “ChinaAMC – Central Huijin Asset Management Single Asset Management Plan” appeared on the top ten shareholder lists of 18 ETFs, with a total of 3.296 billion units, worth about 3.4 billion yuan. However, unlike the direct investments by Central Huijin Investment Ltd. and Central Huijin Asset Management Ltd., these two single asset management plans focused on industry-themed ETFs.
Looking at Central Huijin’s ETF purchases, it first appeared on the Huatai-PineBridge CSI 300 ETF shareholder list in Q2 of 2013, and in 2015 it “tested the waters” during extreme market conditions. Since the end of October 2023, Central Huijin has announced ETF purchases three times. Based on the amount added, the scale has clearly increased. In particular, during the market volatilities in April this year, Central Huijin explicitly defined its role as a type of “stabilization fund,” which greatly boosted market confidence.
Currently, Central Huijin has become an important ETF holder. As of June 30, just the ETFs held by Central Huijin Investment Ltd. and Central Huijin Asset Management Ltd. were worth over 1.28 trillion yuan, accounting for more than 30% of the total equity ETF market.
In addition to Central Huijin, corporate annuities, pension products, insurers, foreign institutions, and other long-term funds have also frequently appeared on ETF top ten shareholder lists.
For example, in corporate annuity plans, as of June 30, over 100 corporate annuity plans had aggressively purchased ETFs, holding a combined total of more than 12 billion ETF units—an increase of over 2.4 billion units compared with the end of last year. Among them, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China corporate annuity plan appeared on the top ten shareholder lists of 10 ETFs, mainly increasing holdings in Hong Kong-listed technology ETFs and Hong Kong-listed innovative pharmaceutical ETFs.
A similar trend is seen with pension products: as of June 30, they held more than 2.3 billion ETF units in total. Among them, the Fullgoal Fuqiang stock-type pension product appeared on the top ten shareholder lists of 19 ETFs, mainly adding holdings in electricity & utilities ETFs and semiconductor ETFs. In addition, Barclays Bank, China Life Insurance Co., and UBS Group each held over 100 ETFs.
In the view of industry insiders, the low-cost nature of ETFs significantly reduces the frictional losses of long-term investing, while the rich product range meets diversified allocation needs. In recent years, pensions, insurance funds, and other long-term capital have been gradually increasing their ETF allocations, marking the formation of a healthy ecosystem of “long-term money for long-term investment” in the capital market. This will promote a virtuous cycle between the capital market and the real economy.