A-shares experienced a V-shaped recovery on August 14, with the Shanghai Composite Index closing higher at 3927.18 points after a late-day rebound. Technology stocks saw wide intraday fluctuations, and the ChiNext Index rose 1.12% after initially dipping. Total market turnover reached 2.16 trillion yuan, a significant decline from the previous day. The AI sector on the ChiNext board led the rally, with optical module leaders Eoptolink Technology Inc., Ltd. and Tianfu Communication Technology Co., Ltd. climbing over 4%, and Zhongji Innolight Co., Ltd. gaining over 2%. The Huabao ChiNext AI ETF (159363), which heavily weights these optical module leaders, closed 3.04% higher.
The optical module sector's strong performance is underpinned by two key factors. First, in the current landscape of tight computing power supply, demand for optical modules shows the highest certainty. Second, the cloud transformation of computing power leasing and continued increases in domestic capital expenditure are creating a resonance between domestic and international demand. Computing power leasing surged again, with Atlas Global Technologies (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. hitting the daily limit, and Wangsu Science & Technology Co., Ltd. rising by 20% on the ChiNext board. The Huabao Cloud Computing ETF (159099), a pure-play computing power ETF, closed 1.95% higher at a record closing price. DeepSeek is set to officially raise prices from August 17, which could lead to a revaluation of domestic computing power assets, with the upstream computing power leasing segment potentially benefiting the most.
The nonferrous metals sector closed slightly higher. The Huabao Nonferrous Metals ETF (159876), the largest and most liquid ETF tracking the same index, rose 1.14%. After seeing net inflows of 10 million yuan the previous day, it received another net subscription of 31.2 million shares. Institutions point out that the macroeconomic environment and corporate earnings are both supporting a transition for nonferrous metals from a rebound to a sustained uptrend, suggesting the current point offers high allocation value. The previously hot innovative drug chain saw a pullback. The Huabao Medical ETF (512170), with over 30% CXO exposure, fell 1.13%, ending a five-day winning streak. The Huabao Pharmaceutical ETF (562050), which heavily weights innovative drugs, fell 1% in tandem. However, both ETFs traded at a premium, indicating strong buying support. Industrial Securities stated that as we enter the mid-report catalyst period, several innovative drug and CXO leaders have exceeded earnings expectations, reconfirming the upward industry trend, and they remain bullish on investment opportunities in the innovative drug chain.
For the week, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.33%, the Shenzhen Component Index rose 0.3%, and the ChiNext Index climbed 1.77%. Analysts believe the market is entering a phase of bottoming with reduced volatility. The August earnings season will be a key inflection point for the main themes, with core technology sectors expected to deliver earnings, potentially driving the market back into an upward channel where earnings and valuations align. If hard tech stocks stage a recovery, the most certain bets include optical module leaders and domestic computing power, while other promising sectors like innovative drugs also merit attention.
Key Observations from the Day's Hot ETFs
Below is a detailed look at the trading and fundamentals of several thematic sectors, including the ChiNext AI, cloud computing, and nonferrous metals markets.
Significant Insights from Tech Giants' Earnings Calls
The ChiNext AI sector led the market, with optical modules and computing power leasing showing strong activity. Optical module leaders rebounded, with Eoptolink Technology Inc., Ltd. and Tianfu Communication Technology Co., Ltd. rising over 4%, and Zhongji Innolight Co., Ltd. gaining over 2%. Computing power leasing strengthened, with Wangsu Science & Technology Co., Ltd. hitting the 20% daily limit at the close, and stocks like Aofu Data Technology Co., Ltd. and Capitalonline Data Service Co., Ltd. rising over 5%. Among popular ETFs, the Huabao ChiNext AI ETF (159363), which heavily weights optical module leaders, continued to strengthen in the afternoon, closing 3.04% higher. Sentiment notably improved, with net inflows turning positive for the day at 10 million shares. On a weekly chart, the ETF continued its recovery, posting another positive week for consecutive weekly gains.
Recently, US optical module leaders (Coherent, Lumentum), computing power leasing giants (CoreWeave, Nebius), and Chinese internet giant Tencent have released their latest earnings and held conference calls. These events have revealed new narratives for the AI industry, providing crucial support for the recent global AI market recovery. According to a summary by Industrial Securities, the core takeaways from these reports and calls include: Coherent highlighted extremely high demand visibility, CPO/NPO progress exceeding expectations, and doubling indium phosphide capacity ahead of schedule. Lumentum noted strong 6T demand, improved CPO visibility, incremental growth from NPO, and accelerated locking of indium phosphide supply. CoreWeave reported that computing power is in short supply with broad price increases, business expansion into the AI inference market, no undue concern over depreciation, and accelerated customer diversification. Nebius cited extremely strong demand for computing power leasing, continuously improving ROI, rising computing power prices, and customer prepayments becoming a source of capital expenditure. Tencent indicated that Chinese internet giants' capital expenditure continues to accelerate, AI-to-B has already demonstrated monetization capabilities, and they are recovering investment through product strength.
As the AI industry transitions from "thematic speculation" to "earnings delivery," optical modules, with their high industrial certainty, have become one of the most noteworthy sub-sectors in computing power investment. Synthesizing recent signals from global tech giants' conference calls and industry trends, the investment logic can be clearly summarized in two points.
Logic One: Optical modules have the highest demand certainty in a tight computing power supply scenario. Current demand for computing power continues to outstrip supply, prompting customers to lock in future capacity early. LTAs provide clear guidance on both volume and price, significantly enhancing long-term demand visibility. The release of demand for new-generation products like 1.6T has exceeded expectations, and frontier technologies such as CPO/NPO are being advanced and accelerated, creating incremental growth opportunities for the supply chain. Upstream core materials like indium phosphide remain in short supply, and optical module leaders with capacity and supply chain advantages will be the first to benefit from the expansion cycle.
Logic Two: The cloud transformation of computing power leasing and the continued increase in domestic capital expenditure create a resonance between domestic and international demand. Computing power leasing providers are accelerating their evolution into "new cloud factories," with cloud business growth and ROI continuously improving. New scenarios like AI inference are becoming a new pole for computing power demand, and each round of infrastructure expansion directly translates into procurement demand for high-speed optical modules. Domestically, capital expenditure by internet giants like Tencent continues to accelerate, and the AI-to-B monetization path has been preliminarily validated. Domestic optical module leaders are poised to benefit from both incremental orders from domestic computing power infrastructure construction and strong external demand from overseas cloud vendors and computing power leasing giants, making their earnings potential worth watching.
To invest in the "high-optical" theme, the Huabao ChiNext AI ETF (159363) and its OTC feeder funds (A class: 023407, C class: 023408) focus on CPO optical module leaders while also covering AI applications. The underlying index's weights for Zhongji Innolight Co., Ltd., Eoptolink Technology Inc., Ltd., and Tianfu Communication Technology Co., Ltd. total approximately 40%, making it a core flagship for AI computing power. The ETF has a latest scale of approximately 7 billion yuan and an average daily turnover of over 1 billion yuan in the past six months, leading in scale and liquidity among the 8 ETFs tracking the same index.
DeepSeek's Significant Price Hike Signals Key Shift in Computing Power
The computing power track saw a sudden intraday surge, with computing power leasing exploding again. Atlas Global Technologies (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. quickly hit the daily limit, Wangsu Science & Technology Co., Ltd. rose by 20% on the ChiNext board, Aofu Data Technology Co., Ltd. gained over 7%, and YunSai Technology Co., Ltd., Erli 263 Network Communication Co., Ltd., and Capitalonline Data Service Co., Ltd. were also among the top gainers. The Huabao Cloud Computing ETF (159099), a pure-play computing power ETF, saw its intraday price rise over 2% before closing 1.95% higher.
Since the start of August, the computing power leasing theme has continued to strengthen. As of the August 14 close, its cumulative gain was 14.59%, significantly outperforming broader tech indices like the ChiNext and STAR 50. Strong earnings and sharp stock price increases from overseas computing power leasing giants have had a clear mapping effect on the domestic market. This, combined with the certainty of the computing power shortage and the improved capabilities of large models and downstream applications, will further expand demand for computing power and enhance the future earnings certainty of the sector. As of the latest data, the proportion of computing power leasing stocks in the underlying index of the Huabao Cloud Computing ETF (159099) is 58.95%, leading similar indices like the Cloud Computing Index (42.43%) and the Shanghai-Hong Kong-Shenzhen Cloud Computing Index (46.11%).
On the news front, DeepSeek's price increase plan has been implemented, adopting peak and off-peak pricing, with off-peak prices being half of the peak rates. Peak hours are 9:00-12:00 and 14:00-18:00 Beijing time, with the rest considered off-peak. According to media estimates, using the newly released DeepSeek V4 Pro as an example, the input price per million tokens is 12 times the original price (cache hit) and 3 times (cache miss), while the output price is 4.5 times the original. Even during off-peak hours, the three respective prices are 6 times, 1.5 times, and 2.25 times the original. This move marks a shift for large models from "price wars" to pursuing sustainable profitability, while also confirming the tight supply situation in the AI wave. Notably, price increases for large models shift profits upstream in the supply chain, making computing power leasing potentially the most directly benefited segment. Additionally, Shanghai recently issued an action plan explicitly supporting the leasing of intelligent computing resources for large model R&D and application by private enterprises, including providing subsidies. Data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) suggests that the domestic computing power leasing market size could exceed 260 billion yuan by 2026. In the medium to long term, the market is projected to approach the trillion yuan mark by 2030, with the intelligent computing sub-sector maintaining a compound annual growth rate of over 43%.
Northeast Securities points out that the AI industry is entering a period of scaled commercial application, with model iteration and diverse scenarios jointly driving demand for computing power. Leading internet companies are continuously locking in long-term intelligent computing contracts, which indirectly confirms the current shortage of computing power. Smaller AI entities, constrained by funding and operational barriers, find it difficult to build their own clusters, thus continuously broadening the demand base for computing power leasing. As the scale of token calls grows exponentially, the industry's business model is shifting from traditional per-card, per-time-period leasing to refined pricing based on token measurement. Combined with the tightening supply of high-end overseas GPUs and the implementation of domestic computing power support policies, the sector is on a clear path of volume and price growth. As the core infrastructure of the AI era, cloud computing holds strong thematic investment value against the backdrop of AI computing power expansion, accelerated data center construction, and the upward cycle of cloud infrastructure.
The Huabao Cloud Computing ETF (159099) passively tracks the CSI Cloud Computing 50 Index, with nearly 60% exposure to computing power leasing. Its top ten constituent stocks cover leaders in key areas such as optical modules (Zhongji Innolight Co., Ltd., Eoptolink Technology Inc., Ltd.), servers/AI computing power (Dawning Information Industry Co., Ltd., Inspur Electronic Information Industry Co., Ltd.), data centers (Runsheng Technology Co., Ltd.), and software platforms (Kingsoft Office Software, Inc., Hundsun Technologies Inc.), aiding investors in capturing opportunities from AI computing power expansion and cloud infrastructure growth.
Inflation Data and Jobs Report Cool Rate Hike Expectations; Rare Earths Boost Nonferrous Metals ETF
The nonferrous metals sector moved in line with the broader market, rising in early trade before pulling back and then launching another offensive in the afternoon. Over 6.1 billion yuan of main capital flowed into the sector for the day, ranking it third among the 31 Shenwan first-level industries. The Huabao Nonferrous Metals ETF (159876), the largest and most liquid ETF tracking the same index, saw its intraday price rise up to 1.34%, closing 1.14% higher on a total daily turnover of 91.85 million yuan, a 24% increase compared to the previous session. Bolstered by strong fundamentals and low valuations, capital actively sought opportunities in the oversold rebound. The ETF received net subscriptions of 31.2 million shares for the day, following a 10.64 million yuan inflow the day before. Over the past 20 trading days, it has accumulated net inflows of 124 million yuan.
Among constituent stocks, rare earth leaders showed significant gains. China Rare Earth Resources and Technology Co., Ltd. hit the daily limit, while Zhongxi Rare Earths Co., Ltd., SHCC (Shenghe Resources Holding Co., Ltd.), and China Northern Rare Earth (Group) High-Tech Co., Ltd. rose over 4%. Possibly driven by the release of a national standard for liquid cooling, copper processing leader Jintian Copper Co., Ltd. also hit the daily limit. Other gainers included Huaxi Nonferrous Metals Co., Ltd., Sinomine Resource Group Co., Ltd., and Xiamen Tungsten Co., Ltd..
The nonferrous metals sector's rise on Friday is likely supported by two main catalysts: improved macro liquidity and rising industry sentiment. On the macro front, following the previous day's US July CPI data that was broadly in line with expectations, Thursday's US July PPI figures also showed moderate increases, indicating further easing of inflationary pressures. After the data release, US stock index futures rose, and US Treasury yields fell. Traders further downgraded their expectations for a Fed rate hike in September. CICC commented that with cooling US inflation, slowing employment data, and the Fed's dovish turn, global liquidity is expected to become more accommodative in the second half of 2026, which would benefit nonferrous metals. In a key industry segment, the rare earth market is characterized by a "low volume, high price" pattern. From January to July 2026, China's total rare earth exports were 34,706.3 tonnes, a 10% year-on-year decrease. While export volumes fell, the average export price doubled year-on-year. Rising rare earth prices directly boost corporate earnings. According to SMM statistics, among 10 rare earth-related companies that have disclosed semi-annual reports, performance forecasts, or warnings, all achieved varying degrees of earnings growth in the first half of the year. Guosheng Securities notes that permanent magnet materials are the most important and promising downstream application for rare earths, accounting for over 60% of total rare earth functional material consumption, with new energy vehicles and embodied robots being key demand drivers. CICC believes that as the second half of the year enters the peak season for downstream applications like automotive and industrial robots, raw material procurement is expected to pick up, potentially opening up incremental space, with rare earth prices having fundamental support. BOC International points out that the macro environment and corporate earnings both support a transition for the nonferrous metals sector from a rebound to a sustained uptrend. If the broader market enters a repair phase, the high-beta nonferrous metals sector, with its strong offensive characteristics, could outperform the market, making it highly attractive for allocation at the current juncture.
With positive earnings expectations and a low valuation post-pullback, an oversold rebound is possible. The Huabao Nonferrous Metals ETF (159876) and its feeder funds (A class: 017140, C class: 017141) track an index that comprehensively covers copper, aluminum, rare earths, gold, lithium, tungsten, molybdenum, and tin. This full-category coverage allows for better capture of the sector's beta. The ETF is also available for margin trading, serving as an efficient tool for one-click investment in the nonferrous metals sector. As of August 13, the ETF had a scale of 1.59 billion yuan and an average daily turnover of 104 million yuan this year, making it the largest and most liquid among the three ETFs tracking the CSI Nonferrous Metals Index on the market.
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