中國発行數千對沖基金，大量進入股票市場

 

Yahoo on 29 July 2020 reported the following:

Hedge Funds Open by the Thousands in China, Piling Into Stocks

Bloomberg News

Bloombergin 14 hours

China’s insatiable appetite for equities is stoking the fastest growth in years for its $385 billion hedge fund industry.

New fund offerings swelled to about 1,500 in July after running at a 1,217 monthly pace in the first half, the fastest since at least 2015, according to fund tracker Shenzhen PaiPaiWang Investment & Management Co. The country’s largest quantitative hedge fund firm registered nine new products last week alone.

The influx could give fresh impetus to China’s $9 trillion equity market, where a dramatic rally that had pushed indexes to five-year highs is now slowing. Regulators have encouraged the development of products for institutional investors like banks and pension funds, local media reported this week, and will allow its better capitalized insurers to own more stocks in their portfolios.

Still, critics caution that taking such market-supporting measures too far may lead to the whirlwind trading that fueled massive bubbles in 2015 and 2007. Many Chinese hedge funds, known locally as private securities funds, borrow money to amplify returns so they can stand out from thousands of competitors.

“If a fund manager is lagging the market, the pressure will be huge,” said Zhang Qingyun, deputy general manager of China Vision Capital Management, a Beijing-based private fund.

Private funds cater to domestic institutions and qualified investors with the ability to commit a minimum 1 million yuan ($143,000). While many of the funds are long only due to China’s restrictions on securities lending, they charge management and performance fees in ways similar to hedge funds. The industry oversees about 2.7 trillion yuan across more than 45,000 funds.

Chinese stocks have been on a tear this month, fueling a 10% surge in the Shanghai Composite Index that beat all but 2 of the world’s 92 other equity benchmarks tracked by Bloomberg. The gains followed steps by policy makers to encourage riskier equity investing, including what one analyst said was the first relaxation on margin trading since the aftermath of the 2015 boom-and-bust.

China’s more strictly regulated mutual fund industry is also booming, raising a record 770 billion yuan in stock products this year, according to a China Galaxy Securities Co. note from July 18. There are 1,262 stock-focused mutual funds and 2,848 hybrid mutual funds in China, overseeing a combined 4.2 trillion yuan, data from the Asset Management Association of China show.

Demand for those funds was already robust in March, in part due to a sweeping and coordinated effort from China’s government to support stocks in the wake of the virus outbreak. State media have also championed a bull market in equities, this month touting its importance for China’s economic recovery.

The recent stock rally has revived investor enthusiasm: of the six mutual funds issued on July 24 targeting Shanghai’s Star board, four topped their 3 billion yuan cap on the first day, according to a Securities Times report.

Some fund managers may be rushing to raise cash now because they worry the window could close at any moment. A diplomatic spat between the U.S. and Beijing last week erased about $450 billion from Chinese stocks in a single day, underscoring the fragility of July’s epic rally.

Others are wary of attracting too much capital in a frothy market. Liu Ke, chief investment research officer at Cathy Rock Asset Management, a Beijing-based fund of hedge funds managing more than 10 billion yuan, says some of his rivals may struggle to make money for investors.

“For us, it’s not a good time to launch products while the market is hot,” he said.

 

Translation

 中國對股票的狂熱欲求，激起了其3850億美元對沖基金行業多年來的最快增長。

根據追踪基金的深圳派培旺投資管理有限公司的數據顯示，繼上半年以每月1,217的速度運行後，7月新基金發行量激增至約1,500，是至少2015年以來最快。僅在上週該國最大的定量對沖基金公司註冊了9種新產品。

大量湧入能為中國9萬億美元的股票市場提供新的動力，中國股市的劇烈反彈已將指數推至五年高點，現正在放緩。當地媒體本週報導，監管機構鼓勵銀行和養老基金等機構投資者開發產品，並將允許資本充足的保險公司在投資組合中擁有更多股票。

不過，批評家們警告稱，採取如此過分的市場支持措施可能會導致旋風式交易，後者曾助長了2015年和2007年的泡沫。許多中國對沖基金（當地稱為私人證券基金）用借錢擴大收益，以便從自成千上萬的競爭對手中脫穎而出。

總部位於北京的私人基金中國遠景資本管理有限公司副總經理張慶雲說: “如果基金經理落後於市場，壓力將是巨大的” 。

私人基金迎合了國內機構, 和合格的並有能力支付至少人民幣100萬元（14.3萬美元）的投資者。許多基金之所以是長期的，是因為中國對證券借貸的限制，但它們以類似於對沖基金的方式收取管理和績效費。該行業管理著約2.7萬億元人民幣，涉及超過45,000個基金。

中國股市本月忽然發力，助推上證綜合指數飆升10％，除了其中的2項, 全都超過彭博所追踪的全球92項其他股票基準。漲勢跟隨政策制定者採取了各種措施，其中包括一位分析師所說的鼓勵風險更高的股票投資，這是自2015年繁榮及其破裂之後，首次放寬用保證金交易。

根據中國銀河證券股份有限公司7月18日的報告，在中國受到更嚴格管制的共同基金行業也在蓬勃發展，今年籌集了創紀錄的7,700億元人民幣股票產品。在中國，共有1,262隻股票型共同基金和2,848只混合型共同基金。根據中國資產管理協會的數據顯示，監管着的資產總額達4.2萬億元人民幣。

在三月份，市場對這些基金的需求已經很強勁，部分原因是中國政府在病毒爆發後做出了廣泛而帶協調性的努力以支持股票。官方媒體還倡導股票牛市，本月稱其對中國經濟復甦的重要性。

最近的股價上漲使投資者的熱情恢復了活力：據《證券時報》報導，針對上海科創板,在7月24日發行的六隻共同基金中，有四隻在首日就突破了30億元的上限。

一些基金經理現在可能急於籌集現金，因為他們擔心這窗口隨時可能關閉。上週，美國和北京之間的一次外交大吵大鬧，單日就從中國股市中抹去了約4,500億美元，突顯了7月份令人印象深刻的上落之勢的脆弱。

其他人則警惕在泡沫市場上吸引着過多的資金。凱茜·羅克資產管理公司（Cathy Rock Asset Management）是一家總部位於北京的對沖基金，管理著超過100億元人民幣的資金。它的首席投資研究官劉克表示，他的一些競爭對手可能難以為投資者賺錢

他說：“對我們來說，在市場熾熱時, 並不是推出產品的好時機。”

       So, with the support of the central government, the equity market in China is expanding fast.