On September 24, 2025, the Science and Technology Innovation Bond ETF Guotai (551880) was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. According to the fund's listing announcement, the Sci-Tech Innovation Bond ETF Guotai raised 2.986 billion yuan, demonstrating strong investor appeal.
Currently, China's bond ETF market is experiencing robust growth. The listing of the Sci-Tech Innovation Bond ETF fills a crucial gap in the country's bond ETF puzzle. Wind statistics show that as of September 18, domestic banks have issued a total of 50 Sci-Tech Innovation Bonds, with a issuance scale nearing 260 billion yuan. The issuers and scale of Sci-Tech Innovation Bonds are also continuously expanding. Among financial institutions, following the early participation of large state-owned banks and joint-stock banks, regional banks are now actively entering the market.
Sci-Tech Innovation Bonds are credit bonds issued by institutions related to the sci-tech innovation sector or whose raised funds are primarily used to support development in the sci-tech innovation field. As an emerging financing tool in the bond market supporting sci-tech innovation, these bonds are highly aligned with the needs of developing new quality productive forces. They represent a key link in accelerating the construction of a sci-tech financial system and receive strong support from relevant authorities.
Currently, the Sci-Tech Innovation Bond market is accelerating its development. Supportive policies such as risk-sharing tools, broadening the scope of issuers, fee reductions and exemptions, and encouraging linked products are expected to further enhance the bond market's capacity to serve sci-tech innovation needs. On one hand, policies encourage medium to long-term funds to increase allocations to Sci-Tech Innovation Bonds and related products. Moreover, compared to ordinary bonds, Sci-Tech Innovation Bonds have longer durations, better matching the duration needs of long-term funds like insurance, suggesting promising incremental funding for these bonds. On the other hand, policy support inherently gives Sci-Tech Innovation Bonds higher valuations than ordinary bonds, and there remains potential for compression of credit spreads.
In the second half of 2025, the A-share market shows clear bull market characteristics. In contrast, bond performance faces headwinds, mainly due to the stock-bond seesaw effect and pressure from sentiment-driven outflows of flexible allocation funds. Currently, the bond market's reaction to stock market trends is gradually diminishing, and bond performance is expected to return to being driven by fundamentals. From a medium-term perspective, against the backdrop of weak demand, monetary policy is more likely to ease than tighten, and adjustments may still present allocation opportunities.
Against this backdrop, Sci-Tech Innovation Bonds are highlighting their unique investment value. The Sci-Tech Innovation Bond ETF can leverage its high-grade credit bond foundation to withstand short-term volatility in the bond market, while also capitalizing on the benefits of continuously strengthening policies, allowing investors to share in the long-term development opportunities of the sci-tech innovation sector. It has become a high-quality allocation choice for balancing risk and return.
Guotai Fund stated that the Sci-Tech Innovation Bond ETF is an important practice in implementing the integrated development of sci-tech and finance. It uses an index-based investment tool to precisely channel social funds into the sci-tech innovation sector, providing stable funding support for enterprises to tackle technical challenges and helping to break through key core technologies. Simultaneously, its operational model significantly lowers the participation threshold for investors, enabling various types of investors to conveniently share in the growth dividends of sci-tech innovation enterprises and promoting the efficient flow of financial resources towards the technology sector. As the market ecosystem continues to improve, the Sci-Tech Innovation Bond ETF will strengthen the capital market's pivotal function in serving sci-tech innovation, foster a virtuous cycle of technology, capital, and industry, and inject sustained momentum into building a leading sci-tech nation.
