Equity products experience a major surge; public funds are projected to earn over 2.6 trillion yuan in profits by 2025.

◎Reporter Chen Yue

In 2025, backed by strong performance in equity assets, public mutual funds saw a significant yearlong increase in investment returns, delivering an impressive annual “scorecard.”

Leading companies with a higher proportion of equity-related business benefited markedly. Driven by structural market conditions, the investment returns of fund products were also divided by style and theme, showing a clear pattern of divergence.

According to data from Tianxiang Investment & Advisory, in 2025, public mutual funds collectively achieved investment returns exceeding 2.6 trillion yuan. Among them, the combined investment returns of equity funds and hybrid funds were close to 2 trillion yuan, making them an unquestionable “profit contributor.” In addition to equity funds, bond funds, money-market funds, QDII (overseas investment) funds, commodity funds, FOF (fund-of-funds), and other fund types all delivered positive returns.

Judging from the overall profit situation of public mutual funds for the full year, the “equities strong, bonds weak” characteristic was evident.

Equity-type funds performed exceptionally well. Among them, equity funds earned about 1.1254 trillion yuan in profits, hybrid funds earned 873.338 billion yuan, and their combined investment returns reached 19.988 trillion yuan, accounting for more than 75% of the total investment returns of public mutual funds.

Fixed-income assets also remained steady. Bond funds earned 186.525 billion yuan, and money-market funds earned 184.147 billion yuan. QDII products performed better, with total profits of 112.564 billion yuan in 2025.

In addition, commodity funds also posted profits exceeding 100 billion yuan, at 103.794 billion yuan. FOF products recorded a modest profit of 18.685 billion yuan, representing a significant improvement compared with 2024.

In 2025, the vast majority of fund companies achieved positive investment returns, with only 4 companies posting investment losses. In total, 39 companies had investment returns exceeding 10 billion yuan in 2025, and top firms with a strong tilt toward equity assets firmly held leading positions on the rankings.

Specifically, based on the investment returns ranking of products under fund companies’ ownership, E Fund and Huaxia Fund ranked in the top two. Their full-year investment returns were 327.008 billion yuan and 258.747 billion yuan, respectively. Right behind them, Southern Fund, GF Fund, Harvest Fund, Huatai-PineBridge Fund, and Fullgoal Fund each saw full-year investment returns of more than 100 billion yuan. China AMC, Bosera Fund, AddCare, CIFCO, Guotai Fund, Invesco Great Wall Fund, and Penghua Fund recorded investment returns exceeding 50 billion yuan. The “top-heavy” effect among public mutual funds was further intensified.

All four fund companies that posted investment losses were smaller companies, with losses ranging from 12.06 million yuan to 135 million yuan.

On the 2025 fund products profit leaderboard, many of the leading entries are broad-based index ETFs, in stark contrast to industry-themed index funds concentrated at the bottom of the table. Moreover, affected by structural market conditions, the investment returns of fund products were also broken down by style theme, showing an increasingly pronounced divergence.

According to Tongyuan data, among the top 10 products by investment return, all were broad-based ETFs except the Hu’an Gold ETF. Specifically, the Huatai-PineBridge CSI 300 ETF ranked first with investment returns of 78.516 billion yuan. The E Fund CSI 300 ETF (initiated), the Huaxia CSI 300 ETF, and the E Fund ChiNext ETF followed with investment returns of 55.988 billion yuan, 42.050 billion yuan, and 40.464 billion yuan, respectively. The Southern CSI 500 ETF and the Harvest CSI 300 ETF each had investment returns exceeding 30 billion yuan. The Huaxia SSE STAR 50 Index ETF, the Huaxia SSE 50 ETF, the Hu’an Gold ETF, and the E Fund SSE STAR 50 Index ETF each recorded investment returns exceeding 22 billion yuan.

The characteristics of structural market conditions are also reflected in product profitability. Specifically, among the top 10 loss-makers, passive products account for more than half, mainly including industry-theme products such as liquor, innovative drugs, and consumer sectors. The largest loss was from the China Merchants CSI Liquor Index A, with losses exceeding 4 billion yuan, and there were 5 other products with losses exceeding 1 billion yuan.

Profit performance of various public mutual fund products in 2025

Fund type 2025 profit
(Unit: 100 million yuan)

Equity funds 11254.95

Hybrid funds 8733.38

Bond funds 1865.25

Money-market funds 1841.47

QDII 1125.64

Commodity funds 1037.94

FOF 186.85

Others 20.81

Total 26066.29

Source of data: Tianxiang Investment & Advisory; cutoff date: December 31, 2025

(Editor: Wen Jing)

Key words:

                                                            Funds