On May 14, the spread factor ETF (hereinafter referred to as "corporate bond ETF") of Ping An Fund's medium and high-grade corporate bonds exceeded 10 billion yuan, reaching 10.017 billion yuan, becoming the third largest bond ETF in the whole market. At the same time, since this year, the bond ETF market has continued to heat up, the number and scale of products have been expanded, and almost all products have achieved floating profit.
Specifically, the corporate bond ETF is the first Smart Beta bond ETF in China (screening constituent stocks or optimizing the allocation of constituent equity according to the determined rules), and the first medium and high grade credit bond ETF. This product is preferred to be listed on the SSE/double AAA debt, implying corporate bonds above AA. It is positioned as credit bond broad base and state-owned enterprise corporate bonds, and focuses on building the core tool of "debt blue chip" of the SSE.
Since this year, the scale of corporate bond ETF has increased by about 4 billion yuan, and the scale has increased by more than 2 billion yuan in the past month. Wang Renzeng, fund manager of Ping An Fund's corporate bond ETF, told Securities Daily The reporter said: "Under the macroeconomic background of maintaining a steady and loose monetary policy and maintaining reasonable and abundant market liquidity, high-grade credit bonds have excellent credit qualifications, stable profits, and low default risk. Especially in the current low interest rate environment, it is expected to continue to attract investors, which provides a broad space for the development of credit bond ETFs."
According to Wind information data, as of May 15, there were 20 bond ETFs in the whole market. The total scale reached 99.241 billion yuan, an increase of 19.089 billion yuan or 23.82% over the end of 2023. Among the 20 bond ETFs, one is a newly established product this year.
Wang Renzeng said: "In 2024, bond ETF will continue the high-speed growth momentum of last year, and the total market size is expected to exceed 100 billion yuan."
According to the index categories tracked by the fund, bond ETFs can be divided into interest rate bonds, credit bonds and convertible bonds. Among them, there are 15 interest rate bond ETFs, 3 credit bond ETFs and 2 convertible bonds.
In terms of performance, as of May 15, only one of the 20 bond ETFs mentioned above has been in floating loss status since this year, and the other 19 have achieved floating profit. Among them, Pengyang China Bond - 30 year treasury bond ETF, Haifutong Shanghai Securities Investment Grade Convertible Bond ETF achieved a return of more than 5%, in addition, Haifutong Shanghai Securities 10 year local government bond ETF, Boshi China Securities Convertible Bond and Exchangeable Bond ETF, Fuguo China Bond 7-10 year policy financial bond ETF and other products achieved a return of more than 3%.
When talking about the reasons why bond ETFs have attracted fund attention and achieved good performance, Shi Hongjun, the general manager of Pengyang Fund's quantitative investment department, told the Securities Daily: "First, its tool attributes are distinctive, its operation is transparent, and it is favored by allocation investors; Second, with the growth of investment demand of insurance companies, pension and other types of investors, some long-term and ultra long-term bond ETFs have well met their needs; Third, with the expansion of China's bond market, liquidity has been improved, credit risk has been effectively controlled, infrastructure construction and bond index system have been increasingly improved, and the development and innovation environment of bond ETF has been constantly improved, which has promoted its development; Fourth, along with the bull market in the bond market, the performance of bond ETFs is also good. "
"Bond ETFs can realize intraday turnaround trading in the market, that is, the shares of bond ETFs purchased on the same day can be sold on the same day, and bond ETFs can be used on the same day after being sold in the secondary market. For investors, whether they want to switch to stocks, bonds or other over-the-counter products, they can achieve 'seamless connection'. At the same time, the bond ETF rate is low, the position is transparent, and holding bond ETF in the medium and long term is also a good choice for asset allocation. " In an interview with Securities Daily, Haifutong Fund said that in recent years, with the gradual decline of risk-free yield and the market maintaining certain volatility, many bond investors chose to increase yields through trading and band operations, and the trading convenience of bond ETFs was further highlighted. At present, the market trend is still on, which is good for the sustainable development of bond ETF.
China is the world's second largest bond market, but compared with the size of the domestic bond market, bond ETF is still in its infancy. Shi Hongjun said: "The whole domestic ETF market is still booming, and the financial needs of investors with low risk appetite are increasing, which shows that China's bond ETF market still has a lot of room for development."
What problems need to be solved to further vigorously develop bond ETF? Lv Ruijun, Fund Manager of Fixed Income Investment Department II of Bosera Fund, suggested in an interview with Securities Daily: "First, we hope to increase the issuance and promotion of cross market bond ETF products; Second, due to the fact that the participants of bond ETFs are still mainly institutional customers such as insurance, banks and securities companies, and individual investors still have a low understanding and recognition of bond ETFs, they hope to improve the convenience of individual investors to invest in bond ETFs in the system design. "
