The Zhitong Finance App learned that Cathay Pacific Haitong released a research report saying that the low level of market sentiment recovered in August, and residents' risk appetite continued to diverge. On the one hand, residents' equity asset allocation continued to slow down and market entry sentiment cooled down in August. On the other hand, private equity funds and private equity asset management were newly high, and risk appetite for some high-net-worth customers was still high. The profit growth in the brokerage sector in the third quarter was quite certain, so focus on sector allocation opportunities. In terms of stock selection, it is recommended to focus on leading brokerage firms that participate in holdings' public offerings, have the highest profit contribution or increased retail share, and leading brokerage firms in international business.
Cathay Pacific Haitong's main views are as follows:
In 2026/8, the direction of residents' asset allocation was mainly fixed income assets
At the end of August 2026, the total market stock of residents' configurable wealth management products reached 374.9 trillion yuan, a month-on-month change of +0.7%, a year-on-year change of +10.4%, and a net worth increase of 2.6 trillion shares, a change of -2.4% month-on-month. Among them, the increases in the size of public funds, private equity funds, private asset management, bank financial management, and deposits were 5293, 134, 3219, 2149, and 36.6 billion yuan respectively, with incremental contributions of +20%, +1%, +12%, +8%, and +1%, respectively.
The equity market shock recovered in August, and residents' risk appetite was divided
In August 2026, the leverage risk in overseas markets was cleared, and the equity market fluctuation was fixed; the stock fund index, mixed fund index, bond fund index, and money market fund index rose and fell by +4.07%, +5.89%, +0.25%, and +0.09% respectively in August; under the continuing shock in the equity market, residents' risk appetite diverged. On the one hand, the pace of residents' equity asset allocation slowed down and market entry sentiment cooled down. On the other hand, 2.397 million new A-share accounts were opened, -9.7% compared to the previous month; on the other hand, private equity funds increased and private equity management grew high. The position is high, the explanation part is high Net worth clients have a higher risk appetite.
Public funds
There is a net outflow of equity fund shares, and the main direction is to increase the distribution base. At the end of August, the size of public funds in the entire market reached 39.6 trillion yuan, with a month-on-month change of +1.4%, with an average net unit value of 1.17 yuan, a month-on-month change of +1.3%; fund shares at the end of the period were 33.9 trillion shares, +0.0% month-on-month. Among them, equity funds, hybrid funds, bond funds, money market funds, and QDII shares increased by -789.1, -52.6, -542.3, +1553.5, and -54.4 billion shares, respectively. In terms of new issuers, the share of emerging funds in the August market was 59.36 billion shares, a change of -25.4% month-on-month; of these, equity newly-issued funds -32.4% month-on-month and bond-type new development funds -17.9% month-on-month.
Private Equity/Asset Management
The scale has increased steadily, and the number of new releases has declined. At the end of August, the stock size of private equity funds was 25.7 trillion yuan, a change of +0.1% from month to month, and the new filing scale of private equity funds was 72.4 billion yuan, a change of -40.7% from month to month. In August, the private equity asset management stock was 13.5 trillion yuan, a year-on-month change of +2.4%. Among them, equity, fixed income, commodities and financial derivatives, and hybrid categories changed +3.3%, +1.1%, +13.1%, and +6.5%, respectively; in August, the new private equity asset management volume reached 98.59 billion yuan, a year-on-month change of -19.7%, and a year-on-year change of +16.1%.
Financial management/insurance/deposit
In August, the bank's wealth management stock reached 31.9 trillion yuan, with a month-on-month change of +0.7%, of which fixed income, equity, and hybrid sizes were +0.7%, +1.0%, respectively; the insurance industry's premium income in the first 8 months was 4819.2 billion yuan, +0.4% year over year, of which personal insurance premium income was -0.2% year over year and financial insurance premium income was +2.2% year over year; RMB household deposit stock was 172.9 trillion yuan, with a month-on-month change of +0.02%, and an increase of 0.04 trillion yuan.
Risk warning: The equity market fluctuates greatly