As the first core broad-based index following the release of the new "Nine National Measures," the much-anticipated listing date of the CSI A500 ETF has been finally confirmed. Recently, the first batch of CSI A500 ETFs have all disclosed their listing announcements, and they will collectively debut on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges on October 15th. This will provide a new investment tool for domestic and international investors to allocate high-quality Chinese assets.

Institutional investors actively participate in the initial offering.

Specifically, on October 15th, the CSI A500 ETF products under Hua Tai Bo Rui, Morgan Asset Management, Fu Guo, Zhao Shang, and Tai Kang Fund will be listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, while those under Jia Shi, Yin Hua, Guo Tai, Nan Fang, and Jing Shun Great Wall Fund will be listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

In the listing trading announcement, the top ten holders of the relevant CSI A500 ETFs were also disclosed. From the list of holders, it is evident that securities firms, insurance companies, private equity, and foreign capital have all actively subscribed. The institutional investors holding the largest proportion of fund shares are mainly the products under Jia Shi, Hua Tai Bo Rui, Morgan Asset Management, Tai Kang, and Zhao Shang Fund. Specifically, Galaxy Securities, Guo Lian Securities, and Zhao Shang Securities have appeared in several CSI A500 ETF products; Tai Kang Life Insurance holds 513 million shares of Tai Kang CSI A500 ETF; Allianz Life Insurance holds 31.962 million shares of Jia Shi CSI A500 ETF and 13.1649 million shares of Fu Guo CSI A500 ETF; Xing Ye Futures Asset Management Plan holds several CSI A500 ETF products from Morgan Asset Management, Jia Shi Fund, and others; Barclays Bank holds 10.0003 million shares of Guo Tai CSI A500 ETF; Ping An Life Insurance holds 447 million shares of Morgan CSI A500 ETF, with a holding ratio exceeding 20%. In addition, fund managers have also actively purchased their own products, such as Jia Shi Fund subscribing to 200 million shares of its own CSI A500 ETF.

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Currently, the first batch of CSI A500 ETFs has begun to build positions one after another, with nine CSI A500 ETFs experiencing net value changes, and incremental funds are entering the market in an orderly manner. Among them, the construction speed of CSI A500 ETFs under Jing Shun Great Wall, Morgan Asset Management, and Jia Shi Fund is relatively fast. According to the data from the Tian Tian Fund website, as of October 8th, the increase in net value since the establishment of Morgan CSI A500 ETF, Fu Guo CSI A500 ETF, Nan Fang CSI A500 ETF, Jing Shun Great Wall CSI A500 ETF, and Jia Shi CSI A500 ETF is at the forefront, with increases of 5.97%, 5.42%, 5.07%, 4.82%, and 4.49%, respectively. According to the announcement, before the first trading day, the stock investment ratio of the CSI A500 ETF will not be lower than 90%.

Broad-based index contains more "new" quantity.

In the view of industry insiders, broad-based is a category of ETF products with continuous vitality, and its proportion and scale will continue to rise. "Our core idea is that since we are going to do broad-based, we must do high-quality broad-based," said the person in charge of Hua Xia Fund when talking about the upcoming listing of A500 ETF at the recent ETF Market High-Quality Development Ecological Conference.

As a more complete portrayal of the characteristics of industry leaders in China's capital market, taking into account the core assets of both new quality productive forces industry and traditional industry, the CSI A500 Index has obvious growth and dividend characteristics. Jia Shi Fund stated that on the one hand, the CSI A500 Index is balanced in the future industry distribution, with a higher "new" quantity, and the proportion of new quality productive forces industry is close to 50%, which can reflect the structural changes in China's capital market and the transformation and upgrading of industries. On the other hand, the CSI A500 Index has a stronger dividend attribute. According to the data released by the CSI Index Company, the dividend yield of the CSI A500 Index in 2023 is 2.66%, and since 2020, the dividend yield of the CSI A500 Index has been increasing year by year, showing that the dividend capacity of the index components is continuously improving, which is expected to provide a dividend cash source for ETF products tracking the CSI 500 Index.

"In the new round of technological revolution, high-quality enterprises representing the development direction of new quality productive forces are expected to bring more source water to the capital market, allowing investors to better share the fruits of high-quality economic development," said Han Xiuyi, fund manager of Morgan CSI A500 ETF. The CSI A500 Index, as a newly compiled broad-based index, can be said to be a broad-based index with a high "new" quantity, covering more leading companies in sub-industries and representatives of emerging industries. This index is expected to achieve a dual drive of "core assets" and "new quality productive forces," fully depicting the economic development structure changes and industrial transformation and upgrading through full industry coverage. At the same time, it does not only select component stocks based on market value, avoiding the omission of sub-industry leaders with development potential.

Gong Lili, fund manager of Jing Shun Fund, said that a series of monetary and financial policy combinations in recent times have exceeded market expectations, highlighting the determination to stabilize the economy and market and boost the confidence of micro-entities. The CSI A500 Index balances large-cap value stocks and emerging industry leaders, focusing more on the future development direction of China's economy on the basis of sufficient market representation, and has a stronger industry-neutral attribute. Therefore, the "balanced" broad-based index of the CSI A500 Index, which takes into account both large and small-cap stocks, is expected to have a better performance.To facilitate more efficient and convenient sharing of A-share investment opportunities for domestic and foreign funds, multiple China Securities A500 ETFs have introduced lower fee rates and quarterly dividend mechanisms. For instance, the management fee for Harvest China Securities A500 ETF is 0.15% per annum and the custody fee is 0.05% per annum, representing a lower level of stock ETF fees in the current market. At the same time, the contract stipulates that on the last trading day of each quarter, the fund's excess return rate relative to the benchmark index will be evaluated. When the excess return rate is greater than zero, the fund will distribute profits, with the distribution ratio not less than 60% of the excess return rate, striving to enhance the investment experience while meeting investors' liquidity needs. J.P. Morgan China Securities A500 ETF has also established a mandatory quarterly dividend mechanism, which means that when the ETF's excess return rate relative to the benchmark index is positive on the last trading day of each quarter, a mandatory dividend will be distributed, with the distribution ratio not less than 60% of the excess return rate.

Index investment aids "long-term capital for long-term investment"

The new "Nine National Articles" clearly propose to vigorously promote medium and long-term capital into the market and continuously strengthen the force of long-term investment. The Central Financial Office and the China Securities Regulatory Commission recently jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting Medium and Long-term Capital into the Market," proposing that after a period of effort, the scale and proportion of medium and long-term capital investment will be significantly increased, the investor structure of the capital market will be more rational, investment behavior will be more long-term, and the market's inherent stability will be comprehensively strengthened. Investor returns will steadily increase, the concept of medium and long-term value investment will be deeply rooted in people's hearts, and a new situation will be formed where medium and long-term capital plays a better leading role, the development of both investment and financing ends is more balanced, and the capital market functions better.

Industry insiders say that promoting the development of index investment is an important tool for building a "long-term capital for long-term investment" policy system. The launch of the A500 index and related ETF products is expected to further enrich and improve China's broad-based index investment system, providing the market with diversified performance benchmarks and investment targets to meet the diverse investment needs of domestic and foreign investors. It is also expected to attract more medium and long-term capital into the most representative enterprises in various industries of China's economy, better meet the development needs of industrial structure adjustment and accelerated transformation of old and new drivers, and help build China's modern industrial system.

Li Yimei, General Manager of Huaxia Fund, said that as the "conductor's baton" for capital flow and the market "stabilizer," index investment connects the asset end and investors and is an important tool for promoting high-quality development of the economy and capital market. On the one hand, index investment has become the "trumpeter" for investment opportunities in the new economy; on the other hand, indexes and index products provide the market with efficient investment tools and tracking targets. While revitalizing the capital market, they help investors share the fruits of high-quality economic development and gradually become an important tool for residents' wealth management and medium and long-term capital allocation. As of October 10, the scale of ETFs in the entire market has exceeded 3.6 trillion yuan. Index investment products represented by ETFs are driven by market recognition and policy support, and broad-based index products will continue to show strong vitality.