ChiNext Index rises 0.89%, storage chips strengthen, oil services engineering leads decline

Shanghai Composite Index fluctuated downward, while the ChiNext Index rose. In the market, storage chips, digital watermarking, communication services, East Data West Computing, Tencent Cloud, VPN, and CPO concepts led gains. Oilfield engineering, coke, planting industry, GMO, energy metals, and agrochemical products performed poorly, dragging the market down.

At midday, the Shanghai Composite fell 0.40% to 4,033.62 points; the Shenzhen Component rose 0.05% to 14,046.74 points; the ChiNext Index increased 0.89% to 3,309.14 points; the STAR Market 50 rose 0.44% to 1,360.15 points; the Beijing Stock Exchange 50 declined 0.03% to 1,365.50 points. A total of 2,557 stocks rose, 2,783 fell, and 46 hit daily limit-ups. The total half-day trading volume across both markets was 1,239.9 billion yuan.

Today’s Highlights

With rapid industry development, energy storage concept stocks continue to attract institutional attention. Data shows that this year, 12 stocks have been surveyed by fund companies, with Tianci Materials, Zhongwei New Materials, and Haopeng Technology leading, surveyed by 35, 16, and 9 fund companies respectively.

U.S. drone technology company Swarmer’s stock price soared about 700% on its first trading day, becoming one of the focus companies on Tuesday’s U.S. stock market. By the close, Swarmer was at $31 per share, up 520%; after hours, the stock continued to rise, surging over 34% at the time of writing.

Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang recently stated that the previously mentioned AI acceleration chips with $1 trillion annual sales target do not include the company’s other product lines.

On March 16, Longbai Group (002601) announced a price increase for its snow lotus titanium dioxide products, with domestic prices up by 500 yuan/ton and international prices up by $100/ton. Subsequently, Huayun Titanium, Kunming Donghao, Shandong Xianghai, and several other companies quickly followed suit, with uniform increases. This marks the second round of collective price hikes within the industry this month, following over twenty titanium dioxide companies’ joint price increases in late February and early March.

Institutional Views

Kaiyuan Securities: Liquor stocks can focus on two main themes, balancing long-term value and short-term opportunities

Kaiyuan Securities pointed out that liquor stocks can focus on two main themes: one is to allocate to leading brands with strong brand barriers, core regional advantages, and stable operations; the other is to consider growth-oriented targets, focusing on second-tier and regional leading liquor companies that have completed market clearing, channel optimization, and regional market share expansion.

Huaxi Securities: Growing AI electricity demand accelerates Agent demand explosion

Huaxi Securities noted that driven by the AI industry, computing power capacity is rapidly increasing. Although currently, the electricity consumption of data centers in China accounts for a small proportion of total social electricity use, this proportion is steadily increasing, showing rapid growth. Policy-wise, green electricity is expected to support increased computing power demand. With the popularity of the OpenClaw project, demand for AI Agents is expected to explode, and the surge in token numbers may further drive computing power needs, increasing electricity demand.

CITIC Construction Investment: Favorable outlook for real estate companies with competitive core tracks, moderate leverage, scale, and brand effects

CITIC Construction Investment is optimistic about real estate firms and intermediaries with competitiveness in core sectors, moderate leverage, and scale, as well as brand influence. In the short term, Shanghai’s second-hand housing transactions have rebounded under policy stimulation, helping stabilize the real estate market’s volume and prices. Long-term, China’s real estate business will continue to shift toward operational services, with imbalances in housing structures in key cities still creating development opportunities.

Huatai Securities: Continuous optimization of petrochemical supply expected to boost industry prosperity by 2026

Huatai Securities pointed out that by late February, the CCPI raw material price spread was 2,470, the lowest since 2012. As corporate capital expenditure gradually declines, petrochemical supply is expected to improve. Price hikes in February were mainly driven by tight supply and strong willingness from leading companies to raise prices. The industry’s profitability has bottomed out in recent years. Under policies promoting “anti-involution,” supply-side adjustments are expected to accelerate, potentially improving profits for bulk chemicals. In the medium to long term, driven by the exit of high-energy-consuming facilities in Europe and America and economic growth in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, exports will become a key growth engine for China’s chemical industry. Since June 2025, industry capital expenditure growth has been declining, but supply-side improvements are expected to boost prosperity in 2026.

CITIC Securities: 2026 will be a key year for establishing a turning point in the consumer industry’s prosperity

CITIC Securities’ research report states that the current consumer market is at a critical window of weak recovery and policy expectations. Based on marginal macroeconomic improvements and micro high-frequency data validation, 2026 is expected to be the year when the consumer industry’s prosperity trend is confirmed. Due to the still-weak macro environment, the recovery of consumer confidence will take time. In the short term, opportunities may focus on policies related to fiscal stimulus. We believe that consumer investment should be balanced with resilience—building a foundation with high-dividend assets and seeking growth through consumption sectors like services, which are sensitive to policy and wealth effects; meanwhile, maintaining defensive positions with high-dividend assets and closely monitoring CPI turning positive, which could boost demand in food service and dairy supply chains. Long-term, emphasis remains on changes in consumption structure.

Guotou Securities: Domestic computing power industry enters a new stage

Driven by external pressures and internal demand, China’s domestic computing power industry has moved from early breakthroughs to a new stage characterized by “independent technology systems, full-stack ecological capabilities, and verified commercial cycles.” Looking ahead to 2026, domestic infrastructure for computing power is expected to see large-scale deployment and value realization in key sectors such as government, finance, internet, and intelligent manufacturing, marking a strategic opportunity from technological independence to industry leadership.