After three quarters, the battle for position in the ETF arena is in full swing.

As of September 30, E Fund and China AMC continued their "duopoly" with ETF assets exceeding 620 billion yuan each, but Guotai Fund emerged as the biggest dark horse—riding sector and thematic ETFs to a 71 billion yuan surge in total assets and a spot in the top three.

Meanwhile, leading broad-based ETFs bled assets collectively, and established managers Huatai-PineBridge, Southern Fund, and Harvest Fund saw significant declines in total ETF assets and rankings due to their heavy weighting in broad-based products.

Let's first look at the latest rankings of fund companies by overall ETF scale.

Wind data shows that as of September 30, 62 public fund institutions managed a combined 4.92 trillion yuan in ETF products.

Among them, E Fund led with 627.671 billion yuan in ETF management scale; China AMC followed closely with 620.153 billion yuan.

Compared with the rankings at the start of the year, although the two institutions swapped positions, the "two-horse race" in the ETF world remains unchanged.

Ranking third is the up-and-coming dark horse Guotai Fund. While many top institutions suffered massive outflows from broad-based ETFs, this firm's ETF scale surged by 71 billion yuan in the first three quarters, jumping from seventh at the start of the year to the top three.

Huatai-PineBridge saw its ETF scale shrink by 307.74 billion yuan in the first three quarters, with the latest scale at 315.396 billion yuan, falling to fourth place.

After the top four, the second-tier lineup of Southern Fund, GF Fund, Bosera Fund, Fullgoal Fund, Hwabao Fund, and Harvest Fund is fiercely competitive.

First, these six fund companies' ETF management scales are mostly concentrated in the 210-275 billion yuan range, with rankings subject to change at any time; second, compared with the start of the year, all six institutions except GF Fund and Fullgoal Fund, which held steady at sixth and eighth, saw ranking shifts but all remained in the top ten.

Among them, Southern Fund and GF Fund both exceeded 260 billion yuan in ETF scale, temporarily leading this group.

However, Southern Fund's ETF scale shrank by 145.625 billion yuan in the first three quarters, with its ranking falling from fourth at the start of the year to fifth.

Worth noting is Bosera Fund, whose latest ETF scale is 234.636 billion yuan, with a contrarian increase of 18.05 billion yuan in the first three quarters, relatively outstanding among top institutions.

Additionally, the most significant ranking decline compared with the start of the year was Harvest Fund, whose ETF scale shrank by 158.359 billion yuan in the first three quarters, dropping from fifth to tenth.

As of September 30, 16 fund companies had ETF management scales exceeding 100 billion yuan, unchanged from the start of the year, and the list of 16 remained the same.

Among them, HFT Investment Management and Tianhong Fund are worth watching.

HFT Investment Management's ETF scale surged by 68.081 billion yuan in the first three quarters, the second-largest increase after Guotai Fund, with its ranking rising from 14th at the start of the year to 12th.

Tianhong Fund added 13.949 billion yuan in ETF scale during the year, rising one spot from 16th to 15th.

Finally, looking at the battle for the top 20 ETF management scale threshold, Ping An Fund replaced Dacheng Fund to enter the top 20, taking 19th place.

Interestingly, when Dacheng Fund previously squeezed into the top 20, it was Ping An Fund's spot it took.

After reviewing the overall scale rankings and changes of fund companies in the first three quarters, let's now look at the leading products that determine each major ETF player's market position and what new changes occurred in the first three quarters.

First, looking at E Fund, as of September 30, the company managed 9 ETFs with scales exceeding 20 billion yuan, including 7 equity products and 2 bond ETFs.

Among them, 3 broad-based ETFs exceeded 40 billion yuan—E Fund ChiNext ETF, E Fund CSI 300 ETF, and E Fund SSE STAR 50 ETF—but these 3 broad-based ETFs shrank by 35.405 billion yuan, 248.253 billion yuan, and 28.093 billion yuan respectively in the first three quarters, significantly impacting the firm's total ETF scale.

On the other hand, E Fund SSE Benchmark Market-Making Corporate Bond ETF added 14.378 billion yuan in the first three quarters, relatively outstanding.

Turning to China AMC, it also had 9 ETFs with scales exceeding 20 billion yuan.

Two products exceeded 40 billion yuan. Unlike E Fund's situation, China AMC SSE STAR 50 ETF and China AMC SSE STAR Semiconductor Materials and Equipment Theme ETF grew by 18.11 billion yuan and 38.268 billion yuan respectively. These two leading products' contrarian growth partially offset the impact of broad-based ETF outflows.

Among leading broad-based products, China AMC CSI 300 ETF and China AMC SSE 50 ETF shrank by 189.346 billion yuan and 155.541 billion yuan respectively in the first three quarters, requiring a longer digestion process.

Next, Guotai Fund and Huatai-PineBridge had 6 and 4 ETFs respectively with scales exceeding 20 billion yuan.

However, their leading product structures differ. Guotai Fund's top three are all sector and thematic ETFs—Guotai CSI All Share Securities Companies ETF, Guotai CSI All Share Communications Equipment ETF, and Guotai CSI Semiconductor Materials and Equipment Theme ETF all achieved contrarian growth in the first three quarters. For Huatai-PineBridge, its CSI 300 ETF dominates with a scale of 106.878 billion yuan, but this product shrank by 315.382 billion yuan in the first three quarters, greatly impacting the firm's total ETF scale.

Finally, let's look at the fiercely competitive second-tier group of Southern Fund, GF Fund, Bosera Fund, Fullgoal Fund, Hwabao Fund, and Harvest Fund.

Except for Southern Fund, which had 6 products exceeding 20 billion yuan, other institutions basically had around 3 each.

Looking at representative products, Southern Fund's CSI 500 ETF shrank by 102.783 billion yuan in the first three quarters, basically reflecting the firm's overall ETF scale changes; GF Fund's representative product is its Nasdaq 100 ETF, which added 5.228 billion yuan in the first three quarters, relatively outstanding among cross-border ETFs; Bosera Fund's largest ETF is Bosera CSI Convertible Bond and Exchangeable Bond ETF, with a latest scale of 60.6 billion yuan. Notably, all 4 of the firm's products exceeding 20 billion yuan achieved scale growth in the first three quarters; Fullgoal Fund's representative product is Fullgoal CSI Hong Kong Stock Connect Internet ETF, though it shrank by 46.331 billion yuan in the first three quarters; Hwabao Fund's largest is Hwabao Cash Tianyi A, a money market ETF with a scale of 95.798 billion yuan, up 15.499 billion yuan in the first three quarters; Harvest Fund's representative product is still its CSI 300 ETF, which shrank by 165.359 billion yuan in the first three quarters, basically setting the tone for the firm's total ETF scale.