A-share Midday Review | Shanghai Composite Index Rises 1.04%, STAR 50 Up Nearly 4%, Semiconductor Sector Sees Wave of Limit-Up Stocks

On September 18, the three major A-share indices opened collectively higher. The Shanghai Composite Index fluctuated upward in the morning session and returned to the 3,900-point level intraday, while the Shenzhen Component Index and ChiNext Index pulled back after opening higher before rising again. The market showed a pattern of "broad index gains, growth style outperforming, and widespread individual stock advances." As of the midday close, the Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.04% to 3,916.07 points, the Shenzhen Component Index rose 1.52% to 13,613.48 points, and the ChiNext Index rose 2.11% to 3,368.03 points. The STAR 50 Index rose 3.93%. More than 4,500 individual stocks in the entire market rose, while more than 810 declined. Half-day turnover across the Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen markets was 1,328.6 billion yuan, an increase of 74.6 billion yuan from the previous trading day. On the capital front, according to Cailian Press monitoring data, main funds flowed net into sectors such as semiconductors, electronics, and computers in the morning session, and flowed net out of sectors such as building materials, communications, and transportation equipment, with the semiconductor sector seeing net inflows of more than 11.5 billion yuan. Market Overview On the board, on the gainers' side, the semiconductor, memory chip, photoresist, and other chip industry chain directions led gains, the retail sector performed actively, innovative drugs and AI drug discovery concepts strengthened intraday, and the brokerage sector pulled up intraday; on the decliners' side, building materials and coal mining and processing sectors pulled back slightly, while complete vehicles and soybeans edged lower. Overall, overnight sharp gains in U.S. chip stocks, Nvidia's comments on next year's chip sales, and Huawei's release of the Ascend 960 supernode led funds to concentrate in technology growth directions such as semiconductors and computing power hardware. The agriculture sector, which had strengthened the previous trading day, gave back gains, and market hotspots rotated quickly. Hot Sectors 1. Semiconductor sector sees wave of limit-up stocks The semiconductor sector opened higher and moved higher, with Tolerance Technology hitting the 20CM limit up, Tianshui Huatian Technology, ChengBang Syncore Technology, and Beken Corporation hitting the limit up, Suzhou Oriental Semiconductor rising more than 14%, Beijing Huafeng Test & Control Technology and Puya Semiconductor (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. rising more than 11%, and JCET Group Co., Ltd. and Skyverse Technology among the top gainers. In addition, photoresist concept stocks were also active, with Great Chinasoft Technology posting a second consecutive limit up and Kente Catalysts Inc. hitting the limit up. Comment: On the news front, on September 17, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said at an artificial intelligence event in Scotland that as AI is further applied across healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, and other industries, the company's chip sales in 2027 will reach twice this year's level; overnight, U.S. semiconductor stocks closed sharply higher, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up 3.14%, Intel up more than 7%, and Micron Technology up more than 5%. In addition, according to Cailian Press, former Micron Technology executive vice president and chief business officer Sumit Sadana expects that truly meaningful new supply of memory chips will not begin ramping until 2028. 2. Supernode concept continues to rise The supernode concept continued to rise intraday, with Shenzhen Gongjin Electronics straight to the limit up, Guangdong SACA Precision Manufacturing up more than 11%, and Hygon Information Technology, Yutai Micro, Unisplendour Corporation, and Fujian Star-net Communication following the gains. Comment: On the news front, on September 17, according to Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, Huawei released the industry's first Ascend 960 supernode using near-package optics (NPO) technology, with a single node supporting interconnection of up to 4,096 cards, and upgraded the Kunpeng supernode and launched the OceanStor M900 AI memory storage system; in addition, Huawei recently said that supernode clusters of more than 100,000 cards will become a basic configuration by 2027. 3. Retail sector opens lower and moves higher The retail sector opened lower and moved higher, with Gansu Guofang Industry & Trade, Shanghai Join Buy, and Jiangxi Guoguang Commercial Chains hitting the limit up, Nanning Department Store once touching the limit up intraday, and Maoye Commercial, Baida Group Co.,Ltd, and Zhejiang China Light&textile Industrial City Group following the gains. Comment: On the news front, on September 15, the National Bureau of Statistics released data showing that from January to August, total retail sales of consumer goods were 32,756.9 billion yuan, up 1.1% year on year, of which retail sales excluding automobiles were 30,176.4 billion yuan, up 2.7%; by retail format, among retail units above designated size from January to August, sales at convenience stores and supermarkets increased 5.5% and 3.8% year on year, respectively. 4. Innovative drug and AI drug discovery concepts pull up intraday Innovative drug and AI drug discovery concepts pulled up intraday, with Berry Genomics hitting the limit up, PharmaResources once touching the 20CM limit up intraday, Acrobiosystems rising more than 10% intraday, and Sino Biological,Inc., Guangzhou Kingmed Diagnostics Group, and Biocytogen Pharmaceuticals following the gains. Comment: On the news front, on September 18, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and eight other departments jointly issued the "15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Pharmaceutical Industry," proposing that by 2030 operating revenue of pharmaceutical industrial enterprises above designated size exceed 3.5 trillion yuan, the innovative drug industry scale grow at an average annual rate of more than 20%, and first-in-class drugs (FIC) account for more than 25% globally. In addition, Novo Nordisk reached a cooperation with Anthropic, and the two sides will use Anthropic's artificial intelligence models and the Claude Science platform to support drug discovery and R&D.