(Yicai Global) Jan. 22 -- China's mutual funds logged record returns of CNY1.18 trillion (USD170.6 billion) last year, as the mainland stock market rallied from a dismal performance in 2018, the Securities Times reported.

The best-performing funds invested in both equities and bonds reaped a CNY521.8 billion (USD75.6 billion) profit last year, according to a recent report from Beijing-based consultancy TX Investment Consulting. They were followed by CNY299.3 billion at funds only in stocks. Currency funds were the third most profitable at CNY196.8 billion, while bond investors took home CNY139.9 billion. The funds with the highest returns belonged to big investment firms.

Last year, the Shanghai Composite Index rose 22.3 percent, while the Shenzhen Component Index and Shenzhen's Nasdaq-style ChiNext board each advanced about 44 percent. By contrast, all three indexes fell over 20 percent each in 2018, their worst result in a decade.

The five largest companies by market value that mutual funds held in 2019 were Ping An Insurance, Gree Electric Appliances, real estate giant China Vanke and distillers Kweichow Moutai and Wuliangye Yibin, TX Investment said. For example, CNY43.4 billion (USD628.6 million) of Kweichow Moutai's shares out of a market capitalization of about CNY1.46 trillion (USD211.5 billion) were held in funds as of the end of 2019.

The top 50 stocks chosen by new funds last year were mostly in the consumer goods and services, information technology and real estate sectors. China Vanke, Zijin Mining Group, China Merchants Bank and lithium battery makers Contemporary Amperex Technology and Eve Energy were all fund favorites.

By contrast, Ping An Insurance and Kweichow Moutai saw the biggest stock sell-offs by funds, while pharmaceutical firms, including Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine and Tonghua Dongbao Pharmaceutical, also fell out of favor. The consumer goods and services and information technology sectors saw high offloading of shares by funds. That may have had something to do with profit taking at year-end.

Editor: Kim Taylor