2024 Active Equity Fund Performance Rankings Released: Lei Zhiyong Takes a Big Lead and Wins the Championship, Jin Zicai's 5 Products Dominate the Top Ten. AI Emerges as a Big Winner.

As announced in December 2024, the frenzy in the A-share market came to an end after a year, and the battle for rankings in public funds has also been finalized. The 2024 annual performance ranking of active equity funds has several highlights: first, Morgan Stanley Digital Economy managed by Lei Zhiyong ranked first on the 2024 annual performance list with a return of 69.23%; second, the five products managed by Jin Zicai, including Caitong Prosperity Selection for a year, Caitong Growth Preferred, Caitong Ingenious Preferred for a year, Caitong Smart Growth, and Caitong Multi-Strategy Fuxin, had net yield rates of 51.85%, 48.62%, 48.09%, 46.82%, 45.66%, respectively, ranking second, sixth, seventh, eighth, and tenth on the semi-annual performance list of active equity funds. During the same period, the Industrial Bank Emerging Manufacturing, co-managed by Zhang Yufan and Marina, ranked third on the list with an annual return of 50.28%. Wang Xiaochuan's Yinhe Digital Economy, Zhou Desheng's Guorong Rongsheng Longtou Yanxuan, and Debang Xinxing Jiazhi, jointly managed by Lei Tao and Lu Yang, also entered the top ten of the 2024 active equity fund performance list with returns of 50.00%, 48.96%, and 46.26%, respectively. Financial Association reporters learned that in order to strive for a high ranking in year-end performance, some funds that had achieved good performance before have reduced their operations to lock in profits in advance; some funds have carried out other "operations," such as limiting large purchases, actively reallocating positions, pushing up heavy-weight stocks. Some fund companies have ended assessments in advance and started planning for 2025. Champion camp with high AI content As a traditional year-end show, the fund ranking battle is in full swing. In terms of performance ranking, funds heavily invested in the AI sector dominated the rankings for much of 2024, benefiting from the structured market conditions. The final results reflected this trend. According to Wind data, as of December 31, a total of 2765 active equity funds achieved positive returns for the year, accounting for 65.21%. 270 active equity funds had returns exceeding 20%, 23 had returns exceeding 40%, and only 4 had returns exceeding 50%. One major highlight on the active equity performance list was the Morgan Stanley Digital Economy managed by Lei Zhiyong, which achieved a return of 69.23%, surpassing the second-place finisher by 17.38 percentage points to become the undisputed annual performance champion in the entire market. As a fund manager who emerged in the early part of 2024, Lei Zhiyong's Morgan Stanley Digital Economy mainly focused on the AI theme, with heavy stakes in stocks such as Zhongji Innolight, Eoptolink Technology Inc., Wus Printed Circuit, and Foxconn Industrial Internet. At the end of November, the nation's Guorong Rongsheng Longtou Yanxuan, managed by Zhou Desheng, topped the list of active equity funds for the year, with Morgan Stanley Digital Economy in second place. Today, Guosheng Rongsheng Longtou Yanxuan has dropped to fifth place with a year return of 48.96%. As a fund that mainly allocates to the computing power sector and also includes other areas such as large semiconductors and financial technology, Guorong Rongsheng Longtou Yanxuan held stocks at the end of the third quarter including Zhongji Innolight, Beijing Compass Technology Development, East Money Information, T&S Communications, Shenzhen Sunlord Electronics. Another major highlight of the active equity fund performance list was the five products managed by Jin Zicai, including Caitong Prosperity Selection for a year, Caitong Growth Preferred, Caitong Ingenious Preferred for a year, Caitong Smart Growth, and Caitong Multi-Strategy Fuxin, which all entered the top ten on the list. Their net yield rates for 2024 were 51.85%, 48.62%, 48.09%, 46.82%, 45.66%, respectively, ranking second, sixth, seventh, eighth, and tenth on the semi-annual performance list of active equity funds. This has made Jin Zicai almost the "big winner" among active equity fund managers in 2024. During the same period, the Industrial Bank Emerging Manufacturing, co-managed by Zhang Yufan and Marina, ranked third on the list with an annual return of 50.28%. Wang Xiaochuan's Yinhe Digital Economy, Debang Xinxing Jiazhi, jointly managed by Lei Tao and Lu Yang, also entered the top ten on the 2024 active equity fund performance list with returns of 50.00% and 46.26%, respectively, ranking fourth and ninth. Many of these products made significant gains in the last month of 2024, resulting in an increase in rankings. Data shows that 10 active equity funds had a net asset value growth rate of over 10% in a single month. For instance, Debang Xinxing Jiazhi had a net asset value growth rate of 13.56% in December 2024, making it the most outstanding product among active equity funds established for more than a year. During the same period, Morgan Stanley Digital Economy also had a return of 11.61% in December; Caitong Prosperity Selection for a year, Caitong Ingenious Preferred for a year, Caitong Smart Growth, and many other products in the top ten had a return of over 9% in December. Overall, the top ten on the active equity fund list for annual returns include both medium-sized fund companies such as Morgan Stanley Fund, Guorong Fund, Debang Fund, Caitong Fund, as well as large public offerings such as Silver China Fund and ICBC Credit Suisse Fund. However, overall, there are mostly "new faces" on the list, with "dark horses" emerging in 2024, including Lei Zhiyong, Wang Xiaochuan, Zhou Desheng, Zhang Yufan, Marina, Lei Tao, Lu Yang and others, with only Jin Zicai as the only veteran to make it into the top ten of the list. Where are the former champions now? Just half a month ago, some of the "players" who were still in the top ten of the list were holding on to China Technology Power for 3 months, Huaxia See Dragon Selection, WestProducts such as Derivatives Industry, Western Benefits Xiong'an New Power Technology, and Tongtai Financial Selection fell out of the top ten rankings due to a lack of "aggressiveness" in the year-end rankings competition.However, their overall performance in 2024 is still "online". Data shows that Zhang Lin managed CMB Tech Dynamic Power with a 3-month rolling return of 45.34% in 2024, ranking eleventh on the performance list; Han Hao managed AVIC Opportunity Navigator with a return of 43.68% in 2024, ranking twelfth; He Qi managed two products - Western Benefits Digital Industry and Western Benefits Xiong'an New Power Technology, with returns of 44.10% and 37.90% in 2024, respectively, ranking fourteenth and thirtieth on the list. Song Bolong managed China Vision Dragon Selection, Wang Peng managed Hongli Emerging Prosperity Leader, Hongli Growth, and Hongli High R&D Innovation for six months, with returns exceeding 40% in 2024. It is worth mentioning that among the past few years' champions of actively managed equity funds, some fund managers still achieved good performance in 2024. For example, Gu Xinfeng, benefiting from the phase rally of the North Exchange in the past year, achieved a return of 28.16% in 2024 for Huaxia North Exchange Innovation Small and Medium Enterprises Select Fund he managed for two years. This product had previously won the champion of actively managed equity funds in 2023 with a return rate of 58.56%. Fund manager Liu Yuanhai, who briefly showed the demeanor of a champion in 2023, still performed well in 2024. Data shows that the funds he managed, Dongwu Jiahe Advantage, Dongwu New Trend Value Line, Dongwu Mobile Internet, and Dongwu New Energy Vehicles, achieved returns of 36.27%, 36.09%, 32.40%, and 18.26% in 2024, respectively. Huang Hai, the champion fund manager of actively managed equity funds in 2022, saw most of his products posting positive returns in 2024, but the overall performance was not outstanding. The former champion fund, Wan Jia Macro Timing Multi-Strategy, only yielded a return of 1.28% in 2024, while Wan Jia Selected and Wan Jia New Benefits had annual returns of 3.20% and -0.04% respectively. Champion fund manager Cui Chenlong, who swept the top two spots in 2021, also had a relatively mediocre performance in the past year. Among the six products he managed, three had positive returns in 2024, while the other three had negative returns. Specifically, Qianhai Kaiyuan Utilities, Qianhai Kaiyuan Shanghai-Hong Kong-Shenzhen Wisdom, and Qianhai Kaiyuan Shanghai-Hong Kong-Shenzhen New Opportunities had returns of 7.00%, 6.47%, and 5.22% in 2024, while Qianhai Kaiyuan Emerging Industries, Qianhai Kaiyuan New Economy, and Qianhai Kaiyuan Shanghai-Hong Kong-Shenzhen Non-cyclic had net asset value declines of 13.81%, 5.98%, and 0.98% respectively in the past year.