In the first half of the year, the number of publicly offered fund issuances hit a five-year high for the same period.

Author: Peng Yansong

In the first half of 2026, the public fund issuance market continued to warm up. According to Wind data, as of June 30, 883 new funds were established across the market, up 31.4% from 672 in the same period of 2025, hitting a five-year high for the same period; total issuance scale reached 659.83B yuan, up 22.0% year-on-year.

By product type, equity funds became the main force in issuance. Data shows that 380 new equity funds were established in the first half of the year, accounting for 43.03% of the total issuance; 250 hybrid funds, 136 bond funds, 95 FOF funds, 14 QDII funds, and 8 REITs funds.

The layout of index-based and technology themes continued to deepen. Data shows that among the equity funds established in the first half of the year, passive index funds accounted for more than 70%. Looking at sub-products, broad-based index ETF feeder funds and industry-themed index products such as artificial intelligence, robotics, semiconductors, new energy, and high-end manufacturing continued to be launched, and fund companies further improved their product layouts around directions such as technological innovation and new quality productive forces.

Tian Lihui, a finance professor at Nankai University, told Securities Daily reporters that the continuous expansion of index products essentially reflects the trend of institutionalization and toolization of the capital market. For long-term funds, index funds have transparent fees, large capacity, and stable styles, making them important tools for asset allocation. At the same time, against the backdrop of increased difficulty in achieving excess returns through active management, more and more investors are inclined to share the long-term returns of the market through low-cost index products.

From the perspective of new fund issuance, Wind data shows that the average subscription period for active equity funds in the first half of the year was only 14.32 days, with about 30% of products completing fundraising within 7 days, and more than 7 products were "sold out in one day." However, in terms of scale, many products only raised tens of millions of yuan.

Zeng Fangfang, a public fund product operations specialist at Shenzhen PaiPai Fund Sales Co., Ltd., told Securities Daily reporters that "small amount, fast issuance" reflects fund companies' more rational issuance strategy. In the current market environment, actively controlling the fundraising scale and shortening the fundraising cycle helps reduce the risk of issuance failure, also reduces fund building pressure, and improves investment operation efficiency. At the same time, this is also an important manifestation of the industry's shift from "focusing on scale" to "focusing on returns."

Zeng Fangfang further stated that small-scale products are more conducive to fund managers maintaining flexibility in investment strategies.

Li Yiming, a senior analyst at Morningstar China Fund Research Center, believes that the industry is gradually abandoning the pursuit of 100-billion-yuan blockbuster products. On the one hand, this stems from regulatory guidance continuously shifting the industry from "scale first" to "holder interest first"; on the other hand, it also reflects that investors are more rational, and channel resources are no longer able to concentrate on supporting single products to achieve ultra-large-scale fundraising.

Tian Lihui believes that with the continuous upgrading of residents' wealth management needs and the ongoing advancement of capital market reforms, the competitive focus of fund companies will further shift from issuance scale to product innovation, investment research capabilities, and long-term service capabilities. In the future, the fund industry needs to further enhance product innovation capabilities, continuously optimize issuance mechanisms, operational services, and investor companionship, and more closely integrate product layouts with investors' long-term interests to promote high-quality development of the fund issuance market.

(Editor: Xu Nannan)

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