As the 2026 National Day holiday approaches, efficient management of idle on-exchange funds has become a market focal point. Against this backdrop, bond ETFs, known for convenient trading, transparent holdings, and diversified risk, have emerged as important tools for on-exchange investors to manage holiday funds and pursue enhanced returns.
This category allows real-time exchange trading like stocks while also capturing bond coupon income, combining liquidity with fixed-income characteristics. Wind data shows that as of September 23, the total circulating market value of bond ETFs across the market reached 1,002 billion yuan, surpassing the one trillion yuan threshold for the first time, signifying further market recognition of bond ETFs' allocation value.
Within this trillion-yuan scale, credit bond ETFs and sci-tech innovation bond ETFs were the main growth drivers. Taking the highly watched credit bond ETF as an example, Guangfa Credit Bond ETF (159397) had a net asset value of approximately 20.887 billion yuan on September 23, maintaining a scale of 20 billion yuan for four consecutive trading days. It ranked first in scale among the four peer products tracking the Shenzhen Benchmark Market-Making Credit Bond Index, becoming the first Shenzhen benchmark market-making credit bond ETF to break through and firmly hold the 20 billion yuan level.
It is reported that Guangfa Credit Bond ETF has been listed for about one and a half years, with its scale growing approximately ninefold from about 2.2 billion yuan to 20 billion yuan; of which, capital inflows this year amounted to about 7.5 billion yuan, representing a growth of over 50% compared to the scale at the beginning of the year.
Three factors enhancing attractiveness, capital adding to credit bond ETFs
Like most bond ETFs in the market, Guangfa Credit Bond ETF's participants are basically institutional investors. According to the fund's disclosed 2025 annual report and 2026 interim report, the holders of Guangfa Credit Bond ETF are predominantly institutional investors, with the institutional investor proportion remaining above 99% at the end of both reporting periods. However, what is different is that the number of holder accounts increased significantly in the first half of this year, rising from 580 accounts in the previous year to 762 accounts, a net increase of 182 accounts, or a growth rate of 31.38%. Both the number of new accounts and the growth rate were higher than peer products tracking the Shenzhen Benchmark Market-Making Credit Bond Index.
Some industry insiders analyze that influenced by the domestic low interest rate environment and continuously declining bond yields, a large amount of allocation funds and safe-haven funds have flowed into bond ETF products such as Guangfa Credit Bond ETF.
Currently, the bond market is in a typical low interest rate range-bound oscillation environment, lacking significant room for swings. In this bond market environment, holding credit bond ETFs with prominent coupon income and riding effects offers better risk-return ratios and maximum drawdown control than strategies where institutions extend duration. Specifically, three factors have increased capital's attention to credit bond ETFs: First, structural divergence in urban investment bonds has intensified, with strict issuance thresholds, allowing the replacement of overly concentrated urban investment bond holdings with benchmark market-making credit bonds with higher implicit ratings, significantly improving safety margins; Second, intermediary fees for off-exchange price inquiries have raised cash bond trading costs, making institutions more inclined to use ETFs for more efficient and convenient band operations, with ETFs becoming an effective tool to replace cash bonds; Third, in a narrowly oscillating government bond environment, credit bond ETFs, relying on coupon advantages, better align with the allocation needs of low-to-medium volatility funds in terms of holding experience and drawdown performance.
Recently, some funds have also worried about credit bond ETFs experiencing deep discounts like in the second half of last year. In response, industry insiders analyze that the deep discounts in the second half of last year mainly stemmed from阶段性 factors of supply-demand imbalance on the asset side, and most of these factors have now faded. This year, whether for existing sci-tech innovation bond ETFs or market-making bond ETFs, their discounts have returned to stability, with on-exchange transaction prices basically reflecting the true value of underlying assets.
"For tool-based products like ETFs, sustained two-way trading demand is particularly important," the industry insider analyzed. Differences among different investors in allocation timing, holding periods, and position adjustment rhythms help form demand matching between buyers and sellers, promoting secondary market liquidity and price discovery functions, and enhancing the convenience of using the product as an allocation and trading tool.
Combining dual advantages of passive index and ETF, meeting stable capital allocation needs
With features such as low fees, high transparency, investment diversification, and high capital utilization efficiency, bond ETFs as allocation tools have further gained investor recognition. Guangfa Credit Bond ETF's scale grew from 2.2 billion yuan to over 20 billion yuan in one and a half years, reflecting investors' allocation demand for high-grade, high-quality, intermediate-duration tool-based core holdings.
The Shenzhen Benchmark Market-Making Credit Bond Index tracked by Guangfa Credit Bond ETF is a basket of solid-quality assets. According to information, as of now, the index's weighted average remaining maturity is about 3.30 years, and all constituent bonds have AAA ratings for either the bond or the issuer, mainly comprising central and state-owned enterprises in the Greater Bay Area, primarily in important and stable industries such as local comprehensive investment platforms and public utilities.
In addition to investing in assets with high-grade, high-quality, and intermediate-duration characteristics, passive investment also endows it with advantages such as risk diversification, transparent holdings, and strong tool-based attributes. For example, bond ETFs adopt a dynamic sampling replication strategy, maintaining relatively constant product duration through continuous rolling reinvestment, avoiding the trouble of natural duration decay from holding a single bond, and making it more convenient for investors to conduct one-click core allocation.
It is worth mentioning that Guangfa Credit Bond ETF also possesses stronger trading liquidity and arbitrage mechanisms endowed by ETF attributes. Combining the dual-layer system of primary market subscription/redemption and secondary market trading, it can achieve "T+0" trading, providing convenience and efficiency. As one of the first market-making credit bond ETFs to obtain general pledged repo qualifications, investors holding this ETF can not only participate in bond index investment but also use it as collateral for financing, significantly improving capital utilization efficiency and liquidity management capabilities.
The smooth operation of benchmark market-making credit bond ETFs is inseparable from the refined operations of fund managers and fund management companies, which is also an important reason why Guangfa Credit Bond ETF can gain recognition from numerous investors.
The fund manager of Guangfa Credit Bond ETF, Hong Zhi, has 13 years of securities industry experience and nearly 8 years of public fund investment experience. His managed products cover on-exchange credit bond ETFs and off-exchange central state-owned enterprise series credit bond index funds, with rich experience in credit asset management and cross-market product operations.
Guangfa Fund is one of the earlier fund companies in the industry to layout bond index funds. Taking credit bond indices as an example, its products cover off-exchange, Shenzhen Stock Exchange single-market, and Shanghai Stock Exchange single-market credit bond index funds. Among them, Guangfa Central State-Owned Enterprise 80 is the market's first Shanghai Clearing House central state-owned enterprise credit bond index fund, and Guangfa Shenzhen Benchmark Market-Making Credit Bond ETF is among the market's first batch of benchmark market-making credit bond ETFs and the first batch of credit bond ETFs to carry out pledged repo.
Data from the Galaxy Securities Fund Research Center shows that as of the end of the second quarter of 2026, since managing its first index bond fund, Guangfa Fund's index bond funds have cumulatively realized profits of 9.517 billion yuan for holders, ranking first in the entire market.
Note: The establishment date of Guangfa Credit Bond ETF is January 22, 2025. Previous fund managers (tenure dates) are: Gao Xiang (January 22, 2025 to August 11, 2026), Hong Zhi (February 13, 2025 to present). The sales fees for Guangfa Credit Bond ETF are as follows: When investors subscribe or redeem fund shares, the subscription/redemption agent securities firm may charge a commission of no more than 0.50%, and on-exchange trading fees are subject to actual charges by the securities company. For details, please refer to the fund's prospectus, fund contract, and other legal documents. Risk warning: This fund invests in the securities market. Before investing in this fund, investors need to fully understand the product characteristics of this fund and bear various risks arising from fund investment. This fund is issued and managed by Guangfa Fund Management Co., Ltd., and the distribution agency does not bear the investment, redemption, or repayment of the product. Before investing, please carefully read the fund contract, prospectus, and other legal documents of this fund to fully understand the details and risk characteristics of this fund. This fund is a bond fund, and its expected risk and expected return are lower than stock funds and mixed funds, but higher than money market funds. This fund is an index fund, mainly using sampling replication method to track the performance of the target index. Its risk-return characteristics are similar to the risk-return characteristics of the market portfolio represented by the target index. The specific risk rating results are subject to the rating results provided by the fund manager and sales agency. Investors should choose products that match their risk tolerance and investment objectives. Funds carry risks, and investment requires caution. MACD golden cross signals have formed, and these stocks are performing well!