Midday Review: ChiNext Index Rises Over 3% in Half Day; Energy Storage Concept Stocks Rally Collectively

From: Xinhua Finance

Xinhua Finance Beijing, March 20 — The three major A-share indices all closed higher in the morning session on March 20. The Shanghai Composite Index fluctuated sideways in the early hours, while the ChiNext Index surged over 3%. The combined half-day trading volume of the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets reached 1.44 trillion yuan, an increase of 139.2 billion yuan compared to the previous trading day.

Market highlights include a rapid rise in energy storage concepts, with Chuhang New Energy and Deyie Shares hitting daily limits and reaching new highs, and Zhengtai Power rebounding to hit the limit. The lithium battery sector rebounded, with Penghui Energy, Huabao New Energy, and Painen Technology rising over 10%. Optical communication stocks surged, with Yuanjie Technology reaching the daily limit, becoming the eighth stock in A-shares to surpass 1,000 yuan, while Changguang Huaxin and Tengjing Technology rose over 15%. The power sector remained active, with Huadian Liaoning hitting five consecutive daily limits, Shaoneng Shares three, and Yinxing Energy and Guangxi Energy reaching the limit.

On the downside, the chemical sector declined sharply, with Luhua Technology hitting the daily limit down, and stocks like Jinniu Chemical, Jinjingda, and Hongbaoli falling significantly.

By midday, the Shanghai Composite Index was at 4,013.16 points, up 0.16%, with a trading volume of 597.1 billion yuan; the Shenzhen Component Index was at 14,119.88 points, up 1.57%, with a volume of 847 billion yuan; and the ChiNext Index was at 3,418.37 points, up 3.30%, with a volume of 433.1 billion yuan.

Hot sectors

The market saw gains in photovoltaic equipment, energy metals, precious metals, BC batteries, CPO, pumped storage, and other sectors and concepts; while oil and gas exploration and services, diversified finance, film and television theaters, combustible ice, data rights confirmation, and computing power leasing declined.

Institutional views

CITIC Construction Investment: In the short term, the rise in the US dollar index and US Treasury yields has put some pressure on gold prices. Gold surged early in the year, with volatility reaching historic highs, which may cause market caution. Historically, following the Iran-Iraq war, gold prices experienced a significant decline; currently, there may still be a 5% downside potential. US stocks have stabilized, laying the foundation for overall market sentiment recovery, which may require easing conflicts. Volatility continues to normalize.

Huatai Securities report states that electronic gases are key raw materials for chips, ranking second only to silicon wafers in wafer manufacturing costs. As chip development advances toward new storage technologies, advanced processes, and packaging, the global electronic gas market is expected to grow by 8% year-over-year to $6.8 billion by 2026, according to TECHCET. Domestic storage and wafer factories are expanding, but supply of gases like helium is constrained due to geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East. The industry’s prosperity in China is expected to accelerate, benefiting leading electronic gas companies.

Hua An Securities report notes that from 2019 to 2024, domestic methyl chlorosilane (DMC) capacity has expanded rapidly, leading to sustained price declines. By 2025, no new capacity is expected to come online domestically, and overseas capacity is being phased out, indicating a peak in supply growth. On the demand side, emerging sectors like new energy vehicles and photovoltaics continue to grow rapidly, with export volumes also increasing year-over-year, significantly improving the supply-demand balance. Leading companies in the industry are holding industry development seminars to establish dynamic pricing mechanisms and production reduction agreements, driving industry profitability into a recovery cycle.

News Highlights

Four departments: Breakthroughs in key materials and components for energy-saving equipment by 2028

Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and three other departments jointly issued the “Implementation Plan for High-Quality Development of Energy-Saving Equipment (2026–2028).” The plan focuses on six types of energy-saving equipment, including energy-efficient motors, transformers, industrial heat pumps, refrigeration and heating equipment, hydrogen electrolyzers, and ICT devices. It aims to promote energy conservation and carbon reduction in key industries, optimize energy systems, and accelerate the development of intelligent, green, and integrated energy-saving equipment through advanced technology R&D, green design, equipment upgrades, and AI empowerment. By 2028, breakthroughs in key materials and components are expected, with continuous improvements in energy system matching and operational efficiency in major industries. The efficiency of motors, transformers, and other energy-saving equipment will reach international leading levels, and market share will further expand.

Shanghai: Organizing the construction of national industry nodes for interconnected computing power to enhance overall capacity

The Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization and the Shanghai Communications Administration jointly issued a notice on the construction of industry nodes for national interconnected computing power. The initiative aims to establish a demand-supply matching system for computing resources across key industries in the city, enabling standardized interconnection and efficient flow of computing resources across different regions, entities, and architectures. The industry nodes will provide market-oriented services such as resource aggregation, identification, and selection, and connect to regional nodes. Key components include a computing internet service center, resource aggregation, resource selection, security, and management systems.

Huawei Cloud CEO Zhou Yuefeng: Launching a series of industry- and product-oriented “Lobster” in the second half of the year

At Huawei’s China Partner Conference 2026, Huawei Senior Vice President and Huawei Cloud CEO Zhou Yuefeng announced that Huawei is committed to open-sourcing its self-developed Pangu large model. The full-size model has already been open-sourced, with multimodal and other models soon to follow. Huawei is also embracing SOTA models, with its MaaS Tokens service integrating over 160 mainstream industry models and providing differentiated capabilities during post-training. Huawei Cloud will also introduce more industry intelligent agents this year, including the enterprise-level intelligent agent development platform AgentArts and data intelligent agent DataArts. In the second half of the year, a series of “Lobster” products will be launched based on the AgentArts platform, covering office, coding, marketing, and other fields.

Editor: Luo Hao

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