CITIC Securities: Banking sector performance has clearly recovered, and institutional holdings have risen significantly.

CITIC Securities research report states that since July, the market style has rebalanced, and the banking sector's performance has clearly recovered, with both absolute and relative returns recording good performance. Public fund institutional holdings have also notably rebounded by 0.92ppts to 1.93%, at the highest level since 2025Q3. We believe the sector is influenced by multiple resonating factors including market style, improvements in the capital flow environment, and stable operating expectations. From an investment strategy perspective, bank stocks face increased volatility in the short term due to capital influences, but the medium-term direction is guided by fundamentals and allocation-type capital, and the sector is expected to be revalued from a "high-dividend defensive asset" to a "high-certainty equity asset," with the valuation upward direction still expected to play out for the full year.