As of May 27, 2026, the structural market trend of the A-share market is unfolding in a nearly tearing manner. On one hand, in recent years, hard technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), computing power, and semiconductors have repeatedly reached new highs; On the other hand, the traditional consumer sector continues to fluctuate at a low level under the suppression of macro expectations.

According to Wind data statistics, as of May 26, the Shenwan consumption index had fallen by more than 7% in the past year, and Baijiu, food and beverage, household appliances, medicine and other subdivisions were under pressure in turn; On the other hand, the performance of the technology mainline is impressive, and the sub indices of artificial intelligence, semiconductors, computing power, chips and other technologies have generally doubled in growth during the same period.

In the "Song of Ice and Fire" of A-shares, a highly controversial phenomenon has emerged in the public fund market. Economic Observer reporters found that 165 actively managed equity funds with the word "consumption" in their names on the market (calculated by combining various types of shares) showed significant differentiation in their performance during the year. What has happened to these funds in terms of investment operations behind the seemingly unified camp?

The gap between the beginning and the end

According to Wind data statistics, as of May 26th, the performance of 165 consumer themed funds has shown a significant disparity between the beginning and end of the year. The best performing Caitong Asset Management Consumer Selection Fund achieved a return rate of 54.92% within the year; However, underperforming funds such as Guotai Haitong Consumer Opportunities, Caitong Asset Management Quality Consumption, and Oriental Urban Consumption Theme all experienced a decline of over 20%.

This means that when buying funds with the word 'consumption', the difference in returns for investors can exceed 70 percentage points at most.

Penetrating through the underlying positions reveals that behind the significant disparity in returns lies the differentiation of underlying assets. The top ten heavy holdings of funds with the name "consumption" that have seen some of the highest increases are no longer visible in traditional consumption stocks.

Taking Hang Seng Qianhai Consumer Upgrade, which has a high return rate of 50.14% since the beginning of this year, as an example, the first quarter report of the fund shows that its top ten heavy holdings are Zhongji Xuchuang, Xinyisheng, Alibaba-W, Dongshan Precision, Xinyuan Shares, Yuanjie Technology, Shanghai Electric Power Co., Ltd., Shennan Circuit, Guanghe Technology, and Changguang Huaxin. Except for Alibaba-W, the other nine individual stocks all belong to the computing power, communication, and semiconductor industry chains.

Hu Qicong, the fund manager of Hang Seng Qianhai Consumer Upgrade, stated in the first quarter report that "the fund mainly allocates related targets such as the AI industry chain. From a yearly perspective, AI remains a deterministic opportunity at the annual level, with overseas giants maintaining a significant proportion of investment in AI capital expenditures to continue driving model progress, fully reflecting the firm confidence of tech giants in AI demand. And this confidence is constantly being positively validated through various means. So believe in the future, the surprises brought by AI are not limited to this.

It happens that there is a similar case. Nord, established in 2018 and with a long-term heavy position in Baijiu in the past, has upgraded its consumption. Among its heavy positions at the end of the first quarter of this year, Pengding Holdings, Platinum Technology New Materials, Shanghai Electric Power Co., Ltd. and other currently hot chip and electronic concept stocks have emerged. The top ten heavily held stocks selected by Caitong Asset Management Consumer Selection are mostly betting on the computing hardware and AI industry chain.

From traditional clothing, food, housing, and transportation to highly flexible hard technology, the changing face of consumer fund holdings has become a unique landscape in this year's public fund market.

Explore The Reasons

Style drift is not an isolated phenomenon, but the result of multiple pressures faced by fund managers in a specific market environment.

The head of a third-party fund rating agency believes that on the one hand, the sustained strength of the technology sector has generated a huge "siphon effect", greatly squeezing the liquidity of the consumer sector. Under the relative ranking assessment mechanism, sticking to the traditional consumer sector may mean bottom performance and scale loss.

A market insider from a fund company in Shanghai bluntly told reporters, "In a market where the technology sector is rising so sharply and the consumer sector is continuously declining, game technology is a helpless move for many fund managers who pursue rankings. Channels will also constantly ask (fund companies/managers?) how to change the downward trend

Faced with market doubts about "style drift", many consumer fund managers of cross-border heavy warehouse technology believe that their operations are reasonable and compliant. The reporter learned that this confidence comes from the broad investment boundaries stipulated in the fund contract.

The reporter found through reviewing the contracts of multiple consumer themed funds that at the beginning of product design, most consumer themed funds did not limit their investment targets to narrow consumer perceptions such as food and beverage, home appliances, and duty-free. The fund company creatively invented the concept of "pan consumption upgrading", leaving ample room for future operations.

Under the relevant logic, 'everything can be consumed'. For example, in the fund contract for Hang Seng Qianhai Consumer Upgrade, all 18 industries at the Shenwan level, including electronics, computers, media, and communications, are listed as "theme industries benefiting from consumer upgrades"; The contract for Hongyi Far East's consumption upgrade clearly defines "communication, electronics, artificial intelligence, and semiconductors" as "emerging consumption" or equipment manufacturing industries that provide advanced equipment for them.

Nord Consumer Upgrade Fund Manager Zhu Hong stated that with the development of technology, consumption is no longer simply about clothing, food, housing, and transportation. The Internet of Things and digital technology are comprehensively reconstructing the underlying logic of consumption. The electronic and new energy stocks heavily invested by the fund are mainly used for smartphones and smart cars, belonging to the category of "emerging consumption".

From a compliance perspective, this operation does make sense, "said Guo Yiming, Director of Investment Advisory at Jufeng Investment Consulting. Communication and electronics are packaged as the upstream foundation of smart homes and computing power, and then classified as part of the pan consumer category, which gives fund managers great flexibility in adjusting positions. But he also reminded that if the proportion of heavy holdings is too high, the product will become a pure technology growth fund, which is very different from the simple understanding of the word "consumption" by ordinary investors.

Compliance Disputes

However, in the process of interviewing multiple fund practitioners, the reporter found that the controversy lies in which one can define a fund's style drift, which is the compliance of the investment scope on the fund contract and the deviation from the performance comparison benchmark.

For example, Caitong Asset Management Consumer Selection stipulates in the fund contract that the investment scope includes domestically issued and listed stocks in accordance with the law (including small and medium-sized board, ChiNext board, depositary receipts, and other stocks approved for listing by the China Securities Regulatory Commission). In the investment strategy agreed upon by the fund, it is stated that based on a profound understanding of the development situation and future trends of the consumer industry, the definition of the consumer industry is divided into three categories according to the Shenwan industry classification standard: primary consumption, optional consumption, and other consumption. Among them, although some industries have not yet been classified as consumer industries, their attributes have basically possessed the attributes of consumer industries, forming actual consumer demand and driving the development of a series of related industries. The fund also categorizes these companies as part of the consumer industry, defined as other consumption.

But the benchmark for the fund's performance is the yield of the CSI Mainland Consumer Theme Index * 75%+the yield of the China Bond Composite Index (full price) * 25%. According to the holdings disclosed by Caitong Asset Management Consumer Selection in the first quarter, the top ten heavy holdings of the fund almost do not hold any constituent stocks of the CSI Mainland Consumer Theme Index.

A compliance person from a mid to large fund company believes that the ultimate concrete manifestation of the risk return characteristics of any public fund product is its performance benchmark. A consumer themed fund with a benchmark consumption index that has a high weight. The task of fund managers is to obtain excess returns (Alpha) around this benchmark, rather than completely abandoning the benchmark and running naked on another track.

When a fund that promotes consumption is dominated by AI computing power and the PCB industry chain in its top ten heavy holdings, its actual net asset value curve will deviate significantly from its performance benchmark and have huge tracking errors. This deviation means that the actual risk exposure of the fund has fundamentally deviated from the risk return characteristics promised to investors when the product was established. ”The compliance related person further stated.

The fact is that, according to Wind data, as of May 26th this year, the return rate of Caitong Asset Management Consumer Selection A has been 54.92%, while the benchmark performance of the fund during the same period was -9.21%.

According to current industry standards and regulatory spirit, if a fund name contains specific industry or theme words, the investment proportion belonging to that industry or theme in its non cash fund assets should generally not be less than 80%. Regulatory authorities not only look at what is written in the fund contract, but also value whether the first impression conveyed to investors by the fund name, prospectus, and promotional materials is consistent with the actual operation.

However, some senior management personnel of fund companies also told Economic Observer reporters that in the actual operation process, whether the fund follows the provisions of the fund contract or the regulatory spirit, there has been a lot of controversy in the industry during this period, and the regulatory authorities need to further refine the boundaries.