Recently, the redemption situation of public mutual funds in the second quarter has become a hot topic in the market.

Changjiang Securities released a report titled "Active Equity Fund Holdings Further Concentrated", which shows that active equity funds redeemed more than 200 billion yuan in the second quarter, and the total net redemption in the first half of this year exceeded 500 billion yuan. This data immediately sparked widespread discussion among investors.

A fund investor said, "I didn't expect that I was also 'shorting' the market!"

However, a person in the fund industry commented on this, saying that the data in the report is somewhat biased. If using 100 million yuan as the unit, it actually reflects the net asset value of the fund. The change in this number also includes factors such as the decline in the net value of the fund and the shrinkage of the equity assets held. He suggested that if you want to compare the size of the fund, it is best to consider from the perspective of shares, because this can eliminate other influencing factors.

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According to Wind data, as of the end of the second quarter this year, there are 9,622 actively managed funds in the market, and there are 2,406 passively managed funds. In terms of shares, the shares of actively managed funds are 2,590.8801 billion shares, and the shares of passively managed funds are 376.4640 billion shares. Compared with the first quarter, both the number and shares of actively managed funds have increased.

However, why do some people say that the fund has been redeemed in large quantities? The key here is the sub-classification of product types. The actively managed funds in the above data include active bond funds. If only active equity funds are calculated, the situation becomes clear.

By the end of the second quarter, there were 2,480 equity funds, including 563 equity funds with a total of 41.5415 billion shares; 4,621 hybrid funds, of which 2,476 are equity-biased hybrid funds with a total of 220.6291 billion shares; 26 balanced hybrid funds with a total of 2.5952 billion shares; 1,386 flexible allocation funds with a total of 69.9277 billion shares. Overall, there are 4,442 active equity funds with a total of 334.6935 billion shares.

Compared with the data of the first quarter, the total number of shares of active equity funds at the end of the first quarter was 341.6324 billion shares. This indicates that the total number of shares of active equity funds in the second quarter decreased by about 69.389 billion shares.

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According to the latest data, in the second quarter of this year, the newly issued active equity funds totaled 23.262 billion shares. However, the net redemption amount in the same period reached 92.651 billion shares, indicating that the redemption volume far exceeds the newly issued scale. Overall, the redemption situation of active equity funds in the second quarter is quite serious.If we broaden our perspective and observe the situation in the first half of this year, it can be found that the scale of actively managed equity funds has decreased by 209.748 billion shares compared to the end of last year. The new issuance scale is 36.788 billion shares, while the net redemption has reached an astonishing 246.536 billion shares.

Further data shows that since 2021, hybrid funds have experienced net redemption for 14 consecutive quarters, with a cumulative redemption of 1978.231 billion shares. Equity funds have also been in a net redemption state for 9 out of the past 14 quarters, with a cumulative net redemption of 117.091 billion shares. The total net redemption for these two types of funds amounts to 2095.322 billion shares.

Meng Lei from UBS Securities also pointed out that the redemption amount of actively managed equity funds this year has exceeded 300 to 400 billion yuan. This situation reflects that, despite the stock market performance may fluctuate, the overall performance of public funds is relatively weak, and the inflow of new funds is insufficient.

At the fund manager level, the management scale of some well-known fund managers has also been affected. For example, the total scale of the four products managed by Zhang Kun from Yifangda has shrunk by more than 3 billion yuan at the end of the second quarter compared to the end of the first quarter. The fund scale managed by Ge Lan from Zhongou Fund has also experienced a reduction for seven consecutive quarters, with the total scale decreasing from 45.874 billion yuan at the end of the first quarter to 40.765 billion yuan.

Even some newly established funds this year, such as Xingzheng Global Innovation Advantage and Huashang Quality Value, have not been able to escape the fate of redemption. Their shares have quickly shrunk from hundreds of millions at the beginning of establishment to less than 100 million.

Passive equity fund scale growth

Where did the money withdrawn from the funds go?

For those passively managed equity funds (those funds that follow the stock market index), the situation seems not so bad.

Let's look at the data: According to the statistics of Tianxiang Investment Consulting, the total scale of passive equity funds has recently increased, growing by 1.21% compared to the previous quarter, reaching the highest point in the past three years. As of the end of the second quarter of 2024, all passive equity funds in the market add up to about 2.28 trillion yuan. Among these funds, there are pure index tracking funds, as well as those that try to do better than the index.

In terms of quantity, there are now 1,407 passive equity funds in the market, which is more than the 1,343 in the previous quarter. The purchase and redemption situation of these funds is also relatively stable. In the second quarter of this year, although some people redeemed, there were more new purchases, with a net increase of 93.288 billion shares.However, despite the influx of new funds, the overall performance of these funds is not very good due to the general decline in the stock market. For instance, pure index equity funds fell by 2.15%, while enhanced index equity funds, which attempt to perform better, fell by 3.98%.

On the other hand, bond funds have performed well, and more and more people are starting to buy into them. By the end of June this year, the total share of bond funds reached 96,576.09 billion, accounting for 32.55% of the market, an increase of 12.64% from the first quarter. In the second quarter, new bond funds issued amounted to 35,510.1 billion, with the net purchase of the entire bond fund being 72,888.22 billion.

It seems that although equity funds are facing some challenges, many people are starting to turn to bond funds, hoping to find returns in this more stable place. This is a general overview of the recent capital flows, what do you think?