Gold ETF Surpasses CSI300 to Become China’s Largest

The Huaan Yifu Gold ETF, with a market value of 90 billion yuan, has overtaken the Huatai‑PineBridge CSI 300 ETF and become the largest exchange‑traded fund in China. The move signals a shift in investor preference toward safe‑haven assets such as gold, as government support for the equity market wanes.

The CSI 300 fund, once backed by state‑owned entities like Central Huijin, now trades at about 83 billion yuan—down from a peak of roughly 440 billion yuan when the government injected capital in 2024 to stabilize the market. The withdrawal of state capital has coincided with a modest 4.9 % rise in the CSI 300 index this year, compared with a 21 % gain in the MSCI Asia‑Pacific.

Meanwhile, the gold ETF’s value fell with global gold prices but rebounded in the last two days, reaffirming its status as the top‑valued ETF. The CSI 300 also experienced a significant outflow of about 18.5 billion yuan last week, one of the largest in Asia. The top two ETFs in China are now fixed‑income and money‑market funds, reflecting growing demand for low‑risk assets.