Some exchange traded funds (ETFs) favoured by China’s sovereign wealth fund have seen a flurry of spikes in inflows, after the country’s stocks tumbled below a key psychological level. 

Daily inflows into four ETFs that Central Huijin Investment Ltd purchased during a market slump have more than doubled from this year’s average in the past two weeks, according to Bloomberg calculations. The more active buying came after the Shanghai Composite Index closed below 3,000 points for the first time since March on June 21. 

The increasing inflows into the ETFs, including the nation’s biggest Huatai-Pinebridge CSI 300 ETF, added to signs that the so-called “national team” may have stepped in to shore up market confidence ahead of the Communist Party’s Third Plenum later this month. State funds were crucial in stabilising the stock market when the Shanghai Composite Index plunged in a February rout. 

Still, the value of net inflows in the past two weeks is much smaller than purchases by state funds earlier this year, and the buying has done little to stem the ongoing market slump. China’s benchmark CSI 300 Index is heading for an seventh week of declines, the longest losing streak since 2012, due to increasing economic growth pressures at home and tariff disputes with the nation’s major trading partners. 

  - Bloomberg