Incremental funds actively entering the market; new March Shanghai A-share accounts increased by over 50% year-on-year

Securities Times reporter Hu Feijun

Since 2026, trading activity in the A-share market has remained active, and investor enthusiasm for entering the market has been relatively high. The latest data from the Shanghai Stock Exchange show that in March this year, the number of new accounts for Shanghai A-shares exceeded 4.6 million, up 82.38% month over month and up 50.10% year over year. In the first quarter, the cumulative number of new accounts for Shanghai A-shares reached 12.0402 million, up 61.15% year over year.

Since January, new accounts for Shanghai A-shares have shown a trend of “opening strong, pulling back, and rising again.” In January, the number of new accounts was 4.9158 million; in February, it fell to 2.523 million due to fewer trading days caused by the Spring Festival holiday; and in March, it rebounded sharply to 4.6014 million. From the structure of new accounts in March, individual investors opened 4.5882 million accounts, while institutions opened 0.132 million accounts; individual investors remain the main force. In addition, in March, new accounts for Shanghai B-shares were 0.12 million, and new fund accounts were 3.94 million.

In March, the overall A-share market showed a pattern of spiking up and then pulling back, followed by consolidation and stabilization. Although the broad market index performance was relatively weak, there were more opportunities at the structural level. Sectors such as power, pharmaceuticals, computing power, and chemicals rotated and gained strength, to a certain extent boosting the willingness of incremental capital to enter the market.

In the first quarter of this year, the year-over-year growth in the number of new accounts for Shanghai A-shares exceeded 60%, directly boosting brokerages’ brokerage commission business. A person in charge of a mid-sized brokerage’s Shenzhen branch told Securities Times reporter that in the first quarter, overall market trading activity was active, and the brokerage commission business at the branch achieved a comparatively clear increase.

A research report from China Jianxin Securities said that, from a medium- to long-term perspective, the concentration and expansion of new account openings have laid a foundation of incremental capital for the A-share market rally, and will continue to inject long-term momentum. Soochow Securities also said that, benefiting from improved trading volume on a month-over-month basis and an active capital market, it expects brokerage firms’ first-quarter performance to continue to grow at a high rate.

Some brokerages were among the first to release optimistic expectations. Dongguan Securities disclosed in its updated prospectus that it expects operating revenue of RMB 861 million to RMB 952 million in the first quarter of this year, up 26.62% to 39.95% year over year; attributable net profit of RMB 331 million to RMB 366 million, up 63.06% to 80.23%. The main reason for the forecast increase in performance is that in the first quarter, the year-over-year increase in one-way trading amount of stock and funds rose significantly, which is expected to drive both brokerage commission net income and net interest income to increase year over year.