China’s onshore equity market has been one of the world’s hottest this year. So much so that even with last week’s more than 13% decline by the Shanghai Composite, enough to put the benchmark in correction territory, four of this year’s top 10 ETFs, including the top two, are A-shares funds.
Increased volatility has prompted some investors to pull money from A-shares ETFs, but not a pair of recent entrants to the A-shares ETF fray are pulling in assets at a prodigious pace, indicating some traders have split view regarding what the near-term holds for mainland Chinese equities.
Last Friday, even after the Shanghai Composite plunged during that day’s Asian session, traders eagerly sought ways for preparing for an A-shares rebound. They did so with gusto, creating 600,000 new shares in the Direxion 2x Daily CSI 300 China A Share ETF (NYSEArca: CHAU), the first leveraged A-shares ETF to list in the U.S. [First Leveraged A-Shares ETF Debuts]
CHAU, which Direxion introduced last month, attempts to deliver twice the daily performance of the CSI 300 Index, the underlying benchmark for the Deutsche X-trackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares ETF (NYSEArca: ASHR), the largest U.S-listed A-shares ETF.
Last Friday’s creation activity in CHAU means that after barely more than two months of trading, the double-leveraged ETF has 1.4 million shares outstanding, equivalent to nearly $64.2 million in assets under management based on Monday’s closing price of $45.85.
Non-leveraged A-shares ETFs rose Monday, though the gains did not dent last week’s losses and that might be why some traders are taking a different approach with the Direxion Daily CSI 300 China A Share Bear 1x Shares (NYSEArca: CHAD). CHAD debuted on June 17, enviable timing for an ETF designed to profit from A-shares declines.