Stock-Biased Mixed Fund Index Hits a New High — “Standing in the Light” Comes Together to Surpass “Ning Portfolio”

Securities Times Reporter Pei Lirui

After five years, the equity-biased mixed fund index has finally hit a new all-time high.

This not only signifies that over a thousand active equity funds are experiencing steadily rising returns but also indicates that many funds once mired in deep losses, with net values halved, have now “climbed out of the deep pit,” and the active investment ability of public funds is once again on the rise.

However, the driving force behind this peak is “a different scene,” with optical communications surpassing the previous “Ning Portfolio” in collective strength to take the top spot, and Zhongji Xuanchuang has replaced CATL as the largest core holding in active equity funds. While the equity-biased mixed fund index reaches a new high, funds are flocking to bet on AI hardware tracks represented by optical communications, and a new round of extreme collective investment is unfolding.

Over a thousand active equity funds hit new highs

On May 7, the Wind Equity-Biased Mixed Fund Index closed at 13,521.96 points, setting a new record. This is the index’s first new high since February 2021, when it reached 13,231.44 points, marking a five-year interval.

The Wind Equity-Biased Mixed Fund Index is often used as a benchmark to measure the average performance of active equity funds and the overall active management capability of the public fund industry. This also means that after more than five years of ups and downs, active equity funds have finally “regained lost ground.”

Data from Wind shows that since May, over 1,700 active equity funds have achieved record-high adjusted unit net values. Excluding funds established during this rally in the past two years, about 1,400 funds have hit new highs, indicating that a large number of active equity funds have already “climbed out of the deep pit.”

Meanwhile, the first “double-up” fund of the year has officially emerged. According to Wind, as of May 6, GF Fund’s GF Yuanjian Zhixuan Fund’s year-to-date return has reached 100.97%, making it the first active equity fund this year to double its net value. As of May 8, the latest data shows the fund’s year-to-date return has already hit 112.29%, setting a new record.

Notably, four billion-level funds established at the market’s peak in early 2021 also hit new net value highs this May, managed respectively by Yang Jun and Ma Lei’s Huatai-Pinebridge Digital Future A, Yang Dong’s China Universal Balanced Selection, Li Xiaoxing’s Yin Hua Xin Jia Two-Year Holding Hybrid, and Wu Wei’s Bosera Hui Xing Return One-Year Holding.

Taking Huatai-Pinebridge Digital Future A as an example, this fund was launched with a total scale of 9.99B yuan on February 24, 2021. At that time, the market was at a high point, and then it entered a prolonged bear market lasting over three years, with its net value once halving. However, in February 2024, the fund bottomed out and rebounded, with nearly 142% return over the past two years, and a 42.54% return since inception.

The highest five-year return belongs to E Fund Rui Xiang I managed by Wu Yang, established in June 2015, with a five-year return of 405.8% and an overall return since inception of 1020.86%. Additionally, Liu Yuanhai’s Dongwu New Trend Value Line and Dongwu Mobile Internet A, as well as Jiangshan’s Invesco Great Wall Steady Return, all posted over 350% returns in the past five years.

Optical communications succeed new energy as core assets

After five years, the Wind Equity-Biased Mixed Fund Index has hit a new record high, but the driving force behind it has become “a different scene.”

In 2021, the A-share market experienced a highly differentiated structured rally, with institutions heavily invested in consumer sectors represented by liquor, and new energy sectors represented by lithium batteries. By the end of 2021, the top three holdings of active equity funds were CATL, Kweichou Moutai, and Wuliangye. As the two largest holdings, CATL and Kweichou Moutai were collectively held by over 1,000 funds, with shareholding ratios of 9.97% and 4.62% of circulating shares, respectively.

The new energy sector was the core driver of the last bull market in active equity funds, with most “doubling funds” in 2020 and 2021 relying heavily on this track. In 2020, Zhao Yi’s Agricultural Bank of China-Huijin Industrial 4.0 led with a 166.56% return, with top holdings including CATL, Ganfeng Lithium, and Longi Green Energy. In 2021, Cui Chenlong’s Qianhai Kaiyuan Public Utilities and Qianhai Kaiyuan New Economy A took the top two spots with returns of 119.42% and 109.36%, respectively. Their top holdings included utilities like China Resources Power and Huaneng Power, as well as lithium giants like EVE Energy, BYD, and CATL.

Five years later, this sharply differentiated market has reappeared, but this time, the core investment position has shifted from the “Ning Portfolio” to optical communications.

Wind data shows that by the end of Q1 2026, Zhongji Xuanchuang, a leading optical module company, remains the largest active equity holding. Additionally, Xinyisheng and Dongshan Precision also rank third and sixth among sovereign equity fund holdings.

More notably, as of the end of Q1 2026, the proportion of active equity funds holding Dongshan Precision, Xinyisheng, and Zhongji Xuanchuang reached 18.54%, 17.23%, and 11.7%, respectively—already surpassing the holdings of the “Ning Portfolio” in CATL and Longi Green Energy in 2021. This indicates that public funds’ collective investment in optical communications has exceeded that in the “Ning Portfolio.”

A research report from Galaxy Securities shows that in Q1 this year, the communication industry surpassed the electronics industry to become the most overweight sector among active biased equity funds, with an overweight ratio of 8.28%, up 1.63 percentage points from the previous quarter.

Optical communications have become the strongest driver of the new generation of “doubling funds.” Take GF Yuanjian Zhixuan Hybrid A as an example: its Q1 report shows a significant bet on fiber optic cables, with the top three holdings being Longfei Fiber, Zhongtian Technology, and Hengtong Optoelectronics, accounting for nearly 30% of the portfolio. In terms of stock performance, since the beginning of the year, Longfei Fiber has surged 2.41 times, Zhongtian Technology 1.26 times, and Hengtong Optoelectronics 2.12 times—each a major “doubling stock” this year.

Beware of risks from extreme collective investment

When public funds’ collective investment in optical communications has surpassed the “Ning Portfolio,” concerns also arise: will the market repeat the collapse of collective holdings seen since 2021?

Looking back at A-share history, institutional collective investment is not new. From the internet bubble in 2000, the rise of consumption in 2011, to the “Mao Index” from 2017–2019, the “Ning Portfolio” in 2020–2021, and now the optical communications rally driven by AI computing power demand, each cycle reflects economic transformation. Yet, almost every extreme collective investment has ended with valuation inflation followed by a return to rationality.

According to a research report from Guojin Securities, as of the end of Q1 this year, the overall allocation ratio of active biased equity funds to the AI hardware sector reached 31.5%, an increase of 17.7 percentage points from the previous quarter, reaching a historical high for active funds’ allocation to this sector. Compared to core tracks in history, this already exceeds the peak of the “Ning Portfolio” in early 2021 but has not yet surpassed the “Mao Index” or the pre-2007 financial real estate bubble. For AI hardware, current collective investment is not yet extremely crowded, but given the accelerating trend since April, crowded trading warrants caution.

Pengyang’s competitive fund manager Dai Jie stated that, from the perspective of AI industry development, the industry transformation is still accelerating. However, it is also undeniable that the market assigns very high valuations to many unprofitable startups, similar to the internet bubble at the start of the 21st century (the internet revolution was fiery and changed the world, but the capital market still experienced a bubble burst). In terms of prosperity, upstream hardware for AI computing power is the most certain, but in the medium term, the current high profitability of upstream hardware is unsustainable. Historically, stock prices tend to lead the turning point of prosperity, so the current crowded collective investment in the computing power sector is not without risks.

A fund manager from Shanghai commented, “Unlike before, the current market shows a split scenario: on one side, risk aversion due to geopolitical conflicts, and on the other, further collective investment in high-valuation new technologies. Behind this is a weak market environment with high volatility and uncertainty, where funds tend to flock to high-growth, high-certainty assets. As long as high volatility and uncertainty persist, the strong will remain strong for a while longer.”