China launched 18 actively managed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on Friday, which could channel tens of billions of yuan into the A-share market, as it seeks to enrich the supply of public investment products and attract medium- to long-term capital into the market.
Unlike passive ETFs that track a specific index, these actively managed funds empower portfolio managers to make dynamic investment choices, aiming to outperform a benchmark index or achieve specific investment objectives.
As a major innovation in the development of China's ETF market over the past two decades, these 18 new funds will be available for trading on both the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges.
They will be issued by 18 top-tier domestic and international fund managers, including industry heavyweights such as China Asset Management, Southern Asset Management, E Fund, and JPMorgan Asset Management.
"The launch of the first batch of active ETFs fills a critical gap in domestic on-exchange active equity instruments. It not only meets the diversified allocation needs of retail investors, but also provides new investment vehicles for medium- to long-term institutional capital, such as insurance and pension funds. This will help cultivate a long-term investment philosophy among investors and further optimize the overall capital market ecosystem," said Tian Lihui, an academic committee member of the China Capital Market Society.
China's regulatory authorities first signaled their support for these products at the Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai this past June. Subsequently, on Oct 19, the China Securities Regulatory Commission officially approved their launch.
These new products enter a rapidly expanding market. As of the end of September, China's capital market boasted a total of 1,692 ETFs, with a combined net asset value reaching 4.92 trillion yuan (about 737 billion U.S. dollars).
China launches 18 active ETFs to woo long-term investors
Iran has warned regional countries that any support for the United States in the event of a renewed armed conflict would be regarded as a hostile act toward Tehran, an Iranian official said on Friday.
Iran would be able to identify which regional states are prepared to back American forces if military action resumes, said Fada Hossein Maleki, a member of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, speaking with Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
He added that in such a scenario, Iran could take actions beyond strikes on the military bases of those countries, and those countries themselves will be classified as hostile states.
Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said on the same day that the United States has spent 11 billion U.S. dollars in taxpayers' money on missile defense for Israel within the past three years.
"It has fired more interceptors defending Israel than Israel has," Araghchi said. "That is not a symbiotic relationship. It is a parasitic one."
The U.S. and Israeli militaries have drawn up concrete plans to launch another military strike on Iran after the U.S. midterm elections, The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing U.S. officials and other informed sources.
However, it remains uncertain whether U.S. President Donald Trump will approve the plan.
A senior Iranian security official has warned that global energy markets will remain volatile "for the next three years" if the U.S. continues its current pressure campaign against Iran.
"Perpetuating the current situation will carry strategic consequences, not least that the energy markets will not find calm for the next three years," Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei said in an interview, published Thursday, with U.S.-based news outlet Drop Site News.
Rezaei said that if another war is imposed on Iran, Tehran still has the capacity to launch missiles and drones at various U.S. assets across the region and will expand its target list to include "cables, data centers and artificial intelligence facilities."
The official also said Gulf states "are rapidly redefining their relationship with Iran" as they realize that "the U.S. military is incapable of defending its own bases."
Iran warns regional countries against support for US in case of renewed armed conflict
