Limit-up surges, rapid rallies, and limit-down plunges are becoming frequent occurrences in the A-share home furnishings sector. Recently, this segment has seen a spate of so-called "meme stocks," with several long-depressed traditional companies suddenly becoming hot targets for speculative capital, leading to extreme price volatility.
Suzhou Gold Mantis Construction Decoration Co.,Ltd. (002081.SZ), Monalisa Group Co.,Ltd. (002918.SZ), and Markor International Home Furnishings Co.,Ltd. (ST美克, 600337.SH) have become prime examples. These are fundamentally traditional companies significantly pressured by the real estate cycle. However, they have been repriced by the market under the guise of new narratives like "computing infrastructure," "semiconductor materials," and "commercial aerospace," resulting in sharp short-term price swings.
**Suzhou Gold Mantis Plunges After 11 Limit-Ups in 15 Days** The most watched stock in this wave has been Suzhou Gold Mantis. As a leading player in China's architectural decoration industry, it once topped the sector in revenue, with annual figures exceeding 30 billion yuan and net profit over 3 billion yuan at its peak. However, its performance has been under sustained pressure since 2021 amid the real estate downturn.
The stock's price was ignited in April by news of a major Vietnamese contract. In mid-April, Vietnam's Sun Group announced signing cooperation documents worth $2.3 billion with Suzhou Gold Mantis. The stock hit the daily limit-up on April 17. The company quickly clarified that the signed document was a non-binding strategic cooperation memorandum of understanding, involving no specific projects or amounts. It later disclosed a subsidiary had won a project for the expansion of Phu Quoc International Airport in Vietnam, valued at approximately 400 million yuan. While far smaller than the rumored $2.3 billion, the "overseas expansion" theme continued to attract capital.
More importantly, the market began attributing "hidden attributes" to the company—its involvement in electromechanical works for the Hainan commercial aerospace launch site and data center office decoration projects. This led to labels like "commercial aerospace," "computing infrastructure," and "AI design + BIM digitalization." From April 17 to May 15, Suzhou Gold Mantis's cumulative closing gain reached 133%, with an intra-period maximum surge exceeding 150%, marking a run of 11 limit-up days in 15 sessions.
The company issued another clarification, stating it is not engaged in the core commercial aerospace industry nor in data center computing operations, merely providing supporting infrastructure services, which account for less than 1% of total revenue. However, the clarification did not dampen speculative fervor, and the stock continued to hit limit-ups. Sentiment reversed only after the company's employee shareholding plan executed a concentrated sell-off at high prices. On May 18, Suzhou Gold Mantis's stock price hit the daily limit-down.
**Rumors of "Nvidia Supplier" Trigger Six Consecutive Limit-Ups** Another heavily speculated stock is Monalisa Group. Primarily a building ceramics manufacturer, it has also been significantly impacted by the real estate cycle. In 2025, its revenue fell 15% to 3.9 billion yuan, with net profit plunging 58% to 52.42 million yuan. For Q1 2026, revenue dropped 7% to 634 million yuan, resulting in a net loss of 18.12 million yuan.
Nevertheless, from May 8 to May 15, the company's stock price hit the daily limit-up for six consecutive sessions, accumulating a gain of over 77%. The core of the speculation revolved around labels like "AI materials," "semiconductor ceramic substrates," and "import substitution." This frenzy was not entirely baseless. In the second half of 2025, Monalisa made three investments related to new materials: participating in Haiguode, a manufacturer of aluminum nitride ceramic substrates; taking a stake in EDA software firm Quanxin Zhizao; and investing in Zhuhai Jingci Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. through its investment platform. Zhuhai Jingci focuses on semiconductor discrete devices and special ceramic products and has applied for a patent related to ceramic substrate drilling. This connection fueled the "semiconductor ceramic substrate" narrative.
Driven by demand for high-power heat dissipation in AI servers, the concept of aluminum nitride ceramic substrates gained traction, leading capital to view Monalisa as an "AI materials" play. However, similar to Suzhou Gold Mantis, this new business segment remains far from forming any significant scale. On the evening of May 14, Monalisa stated in a stock price abnormal fluctuation announcement that its main business is still building ceramics, and it has not generated revenue or profit from semiconductor materials. It explicitly clarified that Zhuhai Jingci is not a "supplier to Nvidia" as rumored. Following this clear denial, Monalisa's stock price plunged to the daily limit-down on May 18, ending its six-session limit-up streak.
**"AI Narrative" Spills Over into Home Furnishings Sector** Compared to the first two companies, the speculation around Markor International Home Furnishings (ST美克) leans more towards a typical rebound play for a low-priced, distressed stock. Once known as the "first high-end furniture stock," its operations have deteriorated in recent years. In 2025, revenue fell 23% to 2.6 billion yuan, with a net loss attributable to shareholders of 2.1 billion yuan, the largest since its 2000 listing. It reported a further loss of 212 million yuan for Q1 2026. Due to consecutive annual losses, it was placed under special treatment (ST) starting May 6, 2025, changing its ticker to "ST美克."
Despite this, its stock price has shown abnormal volatility multiple times. The core reason, again, is the "AI computing" concept. Previously, Markor announced plans to acquire 100% of Shenzhen Wandetai Photoelectric Technology Co., Ltd. through a share issuance and cash payment, aiming to enter the AI computing infrastructure field. Although the transaction has not been finalized, the market has already begun speculating based on narratives like "transformation to AI computing," "distressed turnaround," and "expectation of ST removal." On May 13, ST美克 announced that its stock price had risen 21.46% from May 8 to May 13, severely deviating from fundamentals, and warned of rapid decline risks. On May 19, its stock price hit the daily limit-down.
**Valuation Reshuffle Driven by Sentiment, Not Fundamentals** Judging from financial reports, the recent "meme stock" phenomenon in the home furnishings and building materials sector for companies like Suzhou Gold Mantis, Monalisa Group, and ST美克 is not rooted in fundamental improvement. Instead, it represents the spillover and diffusion of the AI narrative within the A-share market. After significant gains in the AI hardware and computing sectors, market capital has begun searching for new "story assets" among undervalued, low-priced traditional industries. The long-undervalued and deeply depressed home furnishings and building materials sector has become a receptacle for this capital flow.
Data shows that as of the end of 2025, the price-to-book ratio for the Shenwan construction and decoration sector was only 0.79x, at a historical percentile of 11.42%, with 33 stocks trading below book value. Since the first half of this year, some low-valuation companies with tangential links to hot concepts have attracted capital attention. However, according to relevant announcements from these listed companies, the AI and computing businesses of most contribute minimally or nothing to current revenue and profit. Therefore, the stock price anomalies represent a sentiment-driven valuation reshuffle. Whenever events like share sell-offs, clarification announcements, or earnings pressure emerge, market sentiment can reverse rapidly, switching stock prices from consecutive limit-ups to limit-downs.
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