Number of publicly offered exclusive stocks sharply decreases; most are highly flexible assets

Public mutual fund 2025 annual reports have been fully disclosed. Against the backdrop of the industry structure in which institutional capital clumps together continues to deepen, “independent stocks” have become an important window for observing fund managers’ differentiated investment thinking.

According to Wind data, by the end of 2025, the number of independent-stock holdings in the public market mutual funds had shrunk by about 30% from mid-year. Their holding market values are generally on the low side, yet they show a stronger preference among fund managers for high-volatility underlying assets. In sharp contrast, the clumping-together phenomenon among institutions in core popular targets has further intensified.

Careful positioning is the mainstream strategy

A close look at the end-of-2025 breakdown of public fund holdings makes it clear that “small allocations to test the waters, and careful positioning” has become the mainstream strategy for public institutions to allocate to independent stocks, and heavy bets are relatively rare.

In terms of holding size, for more than half of independent stocks, the market value of each individual holding is less than 500k yuan, representing typical exploratory allocations.

In all of 2025, only 3 public mutual fund independent stocks had holding market values exceeding 100 million yuan. In Taiwan-listed 富智康集团, with a holding market value of over 300 million yuan, it remains at the top of the public independent-stock holdings by market value. This underlying asset is co-positioned through six products under Huashang Fund, with the total number of shares held reaching over 18 million shares—one of the very few large public mutual fund independent-stock holdings across the market.

The underlying asset with the second-highest holding market value is 来凯医药-B, which is also a Hong Kong-listed company. It is jointly allocated by two products—兴全合宜 and 兴全社会价值 three-year holding—with both being products managed by fund manager Xie Zhiyu. Together, they hold over 13 million shares, and the holding market value exceeds 160 million yuan.

In addition, 贪玩, a Hong Kong-listed company whose primary business is games, ranks third with a holding market value of about 118 million yuan, with three products under Yongying Fund jointly holding it.

Independent stocks are polarized

When institutions allocate to such assets, their preference for high-volatility underlying assets is especially evident. Wind data shows that at the end of 2025, in public mutual fund independent stocks, the proportion of Beijing Stock Exchange shares with a 30% limit on price rise/fall and Hong Kong-listed underlying assets with no rise/fall limit both exceeded 30%. Some viewpoints hold that these assets have large short-term price fluctuations and relatively high investment risk, but they may provide broad space for fund managers to capture excess returns.

From the perspective of fund types, quantitative funds show a significantly higher willingness to allocate to independent stocks than discretionary (subjective) investment funds, which also reflects the distinctive investment strategy characteristics of quantitative funds.

Although independent stocks align with the investment logic that many institutional insiders mention—“buy when no one is paying attention”—judging from market performance since 2026, these assets’ stock price trends exhibit a polarized pattern. Data shows that as of April 1, the gap in the rise/fall percentage of public mutual fund independent stocks this year exceeds 60 percentage points.

富智康集团’s stock performance has been outstanding. In 2025, its rise doubled; as of April 1, the rise since 2026 has exceeded 3%. The innovative drug target 来凯医药-B saw a rise of over 20% since 2026. Some public mutual fund independent stocks that had higher gains earlier suffered sharp pullbacks this year, highlighting their high volatility characteristics. For example, 贪玩 saw its stock price rise by over 130% in 2025, but has continued to adjust downward since 2026, with a cumulative decline of over 13%; 北森控股, which is held by only one fund, after rising by over 60% in 2025, saw its stock price plunge by over 40% this year; 辰光医疗 rose by over 30% in 2025 and then fell by over 20% in 2026.

Take a rational view of clumping together

In contrast to the sharp decline in the number of public mutual fund independent stocks and the cooling of allocation enthusiasm, at the end of 2025 the clumping-together holding phenomenon among public funds for core popular targets became even more prominent. Institutional funds have accelerated their concentration toward leading targets in popular industry tracks, and the concentration of holdings continues to rise.

Taking 中际旭创, a breakout “flashlight module” track target, as an example: Wind data shows that as of the end of June 2025, the market value of that target held by public mutual funds was about 41.75 billion yuan, ranking it as the 20th-largest heavy holding stock among public funds. By the end of 2025, its public mutual fund holding market value surged to over 160 billion yuan, jumping to become the second-largest heavy holding stock among public funds. Meanwhile, the number of fund companies holding this target increased from 137 to 147.

Regarding the core reasons why the clumping-together phenomenon among institutions is intensifying, multiple fund managers in the industry have provided professional interpretations. Fund manager 林立 (a pseudonym) believes that institutional funds will gravitate toward opportunities with higher certainty; the formation of clumping together is the result of market selection. Fund manager 陈鹏 (a pseudonym) further added that compared with independently discovering niche targets and bearing higher research pricing risks, most funds place more emphasis on investment certainty. Once a specific industry trend clearly takes off and subsequent performance data provides strong support, institutions will collectively follow up with coordinated allocations—this is also one of the major reasons behind institutional clumping together.

Some fund managers who insist on differentiated investing have also issued risk warnings about institutional over-clumping. Fund manager 赵因 (a pseudonym) admitted that excessive institutional clumping can easily lead to crowded trades; if the market’s direction changes later, there may be risks of concentrated selling and large stock price volatility.

(Editor: Xu Nannan)

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