© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A security guard walks out of the Shanghai Stock Exchange building at the Pudong financial district in Shanghai, China February 9, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo
By Jason Xue and Tom Westbrook
(Reuters) – Chinese stock investors are ploughing money into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) this year at the fastest pace on record as they choose to play a languid stock market passively and wait for it to trough.
The trend has also caught on as active fund managers in China struggle to make money and as Beijing uses ETFs to support stock markets and channel funding into strategic sectors such as technology and green energy.
ETFs, which are funds that typically track an index, have garnered more than 400 billion yuan ($55.97 billion) this year in what would be record annual net inflows, according to mutual fund house China Asset Management Co (ChinaAMC), which has the biggest market share in the products.
“When the market falls, many investors would use ETFs to bet on a bottom,” said Xu Meng, executive general manager of quantitative investment at ChinaAMC, which emulates global ETF giants Vanguard and BlackRock (NYSE:) iShares.
In contrast, active equity…
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