If assets had ages, oil would be the youngest, communications and non-ferrous metals would be entering middle age, while coal and banking would be the oldest.

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A brand new narrative is trending in today’s capital market: tagging assets by “age”.

The latest report by Zhongtai Securities, through quantitative analysis of public fund managers’ holdings, reveals the “generational map” behind A-share market assets. The calculation shows that the age gap between representative industries is as much as 9.1 years.

Taking Q4 2025 as a snapshot, the “age” of bond assets is about 39 to 40 years old, near the median for equity industries, similar to communications and electronics, lower than food & beverage’s 41.8 years, and higher than defense & military’s 38.5 years.

More importantly, “consensus industries” across generations are being reshuffled. During the “consumer-dominated” period (2019-2021), core assets like food & beverage saw institutional clustering, while in 2025-2026, against a backdrop of rapid AI industry growth and intensified geopolitical competition, the market’s main line shifts to “hard technology + resources”, with nonferrous metals and communications seeing consistent increases across old, middle-aged, and young fund managers in 2025.

The direct implication of this framework is that the preferred “age group” for assets changes alongside shifts in industrial trends and pricing anchors. Some seemingly “young” new consumption targets may not actually be “young”, while traditional high-dividend oil & petrochemical stocks may become “youth stocks” favored by funds under 35, but the label itself does not guarantee excess returns.

Generational Map of Assets: Who’s Buying, Who’s Holding On?

The average age of fund managers across the market is 38.4 years, industry assets show a clear three-generation distribution, and bond assets are in the middle.

With public fund sizes rising to 36.89 trillion yuan, the average age of 4,166 fund managers across the market is set at 38.4 years. By weighting the age of the fund manager according to their largest holding, the “age” of market assets is accurately quantified.

As of Q4 2025, industry distribution shows three camps:

Emerging Discovery Industries (Youngest): Oil & Petrochemical (36.66 years), Social Services (37.1 years), Steel (37.2 years), Defense & Military (38.5 years).
Core Consensus Industries (Entering Middle Age): Communications (39.2 years), Electronics (39.6 years), Electrical Equipment (39.7 years), Nonferrous Metals (40.8 years).
Value Holdout Industries (Oldest): Food & Beverage (41.8 years), Commerce/Retail (42.2 years), Banking (44.8 years), Coal (45.8 years). Notably, the average age for bond assets is about 39-40 years, at the median level.

Era Imprints & Mainline Changes: From “Consumer Faith” to “Hard Tech + Resources”

The changes in industry allocation closely conform to the shift in macroeconomic drivers, and the mainline has fully turned to “hard tech + resources”.

Fund managers’ allocation strategies are not static, but dynamically adjusted according to shifts in China’s growth momentum.

2019-2021 (Consumption-Driven): Capital inflows and stronger institutional pricing made “core assets” like food & beverage the first choice for institutional clustering.
2022-2024 (Industrial Upgrade-Driven): New energy joined the national framework, and the electrical equipment sector gained consensus overweighting across age groups, thanks to its smooth industrial logic.
2025-2026 (Hard Tech + Resources): With global geopolitics and AI explosion, nonferrous metals leapt to long-duration strategic assets, alongside communications, forming a new consensus across three generations of managers.

Fund Managers’ “Age Code”: 1960s’ Muscle Memory vs. 1985s’ Extreme Faith

Due to their different upbringing, fund managers of different generations display significant cognitive differences and path dependence in various sectors.

Data reveals extreme differentiation in stock selection among different age groups of managers:

Post-1960s (G3, ages 55-60) Muscle Memory: As the first wave of capital market participants, they deeply favor “monopoly barriers + perpetual operation”, significantly overweighting Kweichow Moutai, Zijin Mining, Tencent Holdings, and Alibaba, while underweighting hard tech targets like Zhongji Xuchuang.
Post-1985s (G7, ages 35-40) Extreme Beliefs: Having experienced bull markets in new energy and AI, they strongly believe in the dividend of hard tech transformation, significantly overweighting Zhongji Xuchuang and Cambricon, and underweighting Zijin Mining and Kweichow Moutai.
Post-1990s (G8, ages 30-35) Cognitive Integration: The youngest generation is attempting to merge growth with cyclicality, overweighting Zhongji Xuchuang while revisiting traditional sectors like Zijin Mining.

Breaking Stereotypes: New Consumption Turns “Old”, Traditional Oil Turns “Young”

Moreover, asset tagging shows “counterintuitive” phenomena: traditional consumer managers chase new consumption, while young managers seek high flexibility in traditional oil stocks.

Actual market transaction data breaks traditional stereotypes:

A Certain New Consumption Company Is “Not Young”: By the second half of 2025, its average holding age reached 40.35 years, higher than the market average. This reflects the FOMO (fear of missing out) mentality of traditional consumer fund managers toward new trends, and veteran acceptance of the global expansion abilities of hot IPs.

A Certain Oil Company Is “Not Old”: As a traditional high-dividend value stock, it surprisingly became a “young stock” favored by managers under 35. The reason is that fluctuations in international oil prices bring a high performance elasticity, which matches younger managers’ pursuit of “high flexibility and high returns”.

Ultimately, the “age” tag of assets is only a facade; its essence is the projection of the main industrial lines of different eras onto the capital side. There is no absolute age gap between emerging and traditional sectors, and whether excess returns can be created is ultimately up to time to prove.

Risk Warning and DisclaimerThe market has risks; investment requires caution. This article does not constitute individual investment advice, nor does it take into account individual users’ specific investment objectives, financial condition, or needs. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article are suited to their specific situation. Investment based on this is at your own risk. ```