The ChiNext Index surged over 2% on high volume on the last trading day before the Dragon Boat Festival (June 18th), setting another historical high! The price of the hard-tech broad-based ETF covering leading high-growth companies from the ChiNext and STAR markets — the HUABAO SHANGHAI SCI TECH INNOVATION BOARD CHIP TRADING OPEN ENDED INDEX SECURITIES INVESTMENT FUND (SSE: 588330) — jumped 3.67% intraday, refreshing its high since its listing in July 2021. The combined turnover for the Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing markets reached 3.33 trillion yuan, an increase of 217.9 billion yuan from the previous session.
In the market, semiconductor leaders saw batch new highs. Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited (SSE: 688256) surged 14%, aiming for the "trillion-yuan market cap club." The price of the HUABAO SHANGHAI SCI TECH INNOVATION BOARD CHIP TRADING OPEN ENDED INDEX SECURITIES INVESTMENT FUND (SSE: 589190), which comprehensively invests in the chip industry, rose strongly by 4.46%, consecutively setting new highs since listing! Over 33.1 billion yuan in main capital continued to flow into the electronics sector. Foxconn Industrial Internet Co.,Ltd. (SSE: 601138), Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited (SSE: 688256), and GigaDevice topped the A-share capital inflow list. The price of the HUABAO SHANGHAI SCI TECH INNOVATION BOARD CHIP TRADING OPEN ENDED INDEX SECURITIES INVESTMENT FUND (SSE: 515260), covering hot concepts like PCB, memory chips, and semiconductor equipment, closed up 3.67%, also reaching a new historical high.
The AI twin stars moved higher together. The market capitalization of Zhongji Innolight Co.,Ltd. (SZSE: 300308) surpassed that of Kweichow Moutai. The price of the HUABAO SHANGHAI SCI TECH INNOVATION BOARD CHIP TRADING OPEN ENDED INDEX SECURITIES INVESTMENT FUND (SZSE: 159363), with nearly 40% exposure to stocks like Yihua, Zhongji, and Tianfu, rose 3.43% to set a new listing high! Benefiting from STAR market policies and positive catalysts in the chip industry, the price of the HUABAO SHANGHAI SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION BOARD ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TRADING OPEN ENDED INDEX SECURITIES INVESTMENT FUND (SSE: 589520), focusing on the domestic AI industry chain, rose over 5.6% at its peak, closing up 4.91%, marking its fourth consecutive positive day, with its daily chart potentially forming a rising pattern from a low base.
Overseas, the Federal Reserve maintained a hawkish stance, but domestic policy support underpinned the market, with funds continuing to cluster around hard tech. Ping An Securities believes that while the Shanghai Composite faces resistance around 4100 points, downside space may be limited, and the market could still see a choppy rise after the holiday, with structural opportunities in growth themes likely to persist.
Analysts note that from mid-to-late June, the market enters the window for verifying interim earnings reports, and positioning for the earnings theme often becomes a market consensus at this stage. High-growth leading stocks in the tech sector carry high market expectations for interim results, with particular attention on segments like memory chips, optical modules, and optical fibers.
Looking ahead, CITIC Securities believes A-shares may embark on a medium-term upward trend in the second half of the year, driven by three factors: policy-driven fundamental recovery, enhanced global allocation appeal for A-shares, and the transmission of loose macro liquidity to the stock market. Overseas factors may still cause frequent disturbances in the third quarter, but with policy support, the domestic economy is expected to recover to normal levels quickly in Q3, with A-share profit growth likely to rise quarter by quarter. It is anticipated that starting from the latter part of the third quarter, A-shares may begin a trend of sustained growth lasting several months, representing a healthy, stable, and sustainable bull market.
Key ETF Highlights
This section focuses on the trading and fundamental aspects of industry-themed ETFs such as those tracking STAR Market chips, electronics, and ChiNext artificial intelligence.
STAR Market Chip ETFs Reach New Highs
The STAR chip sector staged a strong rally. Giant Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited (SSE: 688256) surged on heavy volume, gaining over 16% at its peak and closing up more than 14%, with its share price reaching a new high above 1500 yuan and its market cap nearing 950 billion yuan, just a step away from the "trillion-yuan club." Huahong Grace rose over 12% intraday, closing up more than 6%. Hygon Information gained over 6%, while SMIC and Biwin Storage rose over 4%. Over ten stocks, including Huahong Grace, Biwin Storage, CSSC Special Gas, and Jiehua Tech, hit new highs in batches.
The price of the HUABAO SHANGHAI SCI TECH INNOVATION BOARD CHIP TRADING OPEN ENDED INDEX SECURITIES INVESTMENT FUND (SSE: 589190), which comprehensively invests in the chip industry with more robust constituent stocks, rose over 5% at one point, closing up 4.46%, consecutively setting new highs since listing.
It is worth noting that during this year's chip and semiconductor market trend, STAR chip ETFs have demonstrated strong upward momentum. The SSE STAR Market Chip Index has accumulated a gain of 76.55% year-to-date, performing relatively well among similar semiconductor chip indices.
In terms of market drivers, leading cloud vendors are increasing purchases of domestic chips. Industry insiders indicated that ByteDance is discussing purchasing at least 50,000 AI chips from Dayu Intelligence, primarily for inference tasks, sparking market imagination about the large-scale deployment capabilities of domestic AI chips.
IDC data from April showed that the total delivery of AI accelerator cards in the Chinese market reached 4 million units in 2025, with domestic manufacturers delivering 1.65 million units, raising their market share to 41%, while Nvidia's share in China significantly contracted from a near-monopoly of 95% to 55%.
Guosen Securities pointed out that against the backdrop of restrictions on overseas high-end chips, the resonance between domestic information technology innovation and large model iterations is accelerating the adaptation and volume increase for domestic AI chip manufacturers, bringing incremental opportunities to the full-stack ecosystem. Guojin Securities also believes that the current competition in computing power has moved beyond the comparison of single-chip performance, entering a new stage of system-level competition involving chips, memory, interconnects, software, and cluster synergy. Domestic computing power chips are experiencing a quadruple resonance of policy, demand, technology, and ecosystem, with the industry entering a high-growth cycle of order expansion and earnings realization, becoming a core allocation theme in the tech sector.
As mid-to-late June arrives, the market enters the interim earnings verification window. Due to high earnings expectations, market attention on leading companies in high-growth sub-sectors within the tech track is expected to further intensify, potentially strengthening the hard tech theme.
For exposure to the chip industry's "super cycle," high-beta 20CM varieties are preferred. Public information shows that the HUABAO SHANGHAI SCI TECH INNOVATION BOARD CHIP TRADING OPEN ENDED INDEX SECURITIES INVESTMENT FUND (SSE: 589190) and its feeder funds (Class A 021224, Class C 021225) passively track the SSE STAR Market Chip Index. While providing balanced allocation and full-chain exposure to the chip industry, it has over 90% weight in core areas like integrated circuits and semiconductor equipment, featuring high hard-tech content and strong offensive characteristics.
Public data shows that the HUABAO SHANGHAI SCI TECH INNOVATION BOARD CHIP TRADING OPEN ENDED INDEX SECURITIES INVESTMENT FUND (SSE: 589190) has a management fee of 0.3% and a custody fee of 0.08%, resulting in a total expense ratio of 0.38%, which is relatively low among ETFs tracking the same underlying index.
Potential Price Increase Window for Domestic AI Chips
The electronics sector continued its strong uptrend, attracting a net inflow of 33.1 billion yuan in main capital for the day. Over a longer period, the sector attracted 199.6 billion yuan and 379.3 billion yuan in the past 5 and 20 trading days respectively, consistently ranking first in capital inflow among the 31 Shenwan primary industries by a significant margin. Foxconn Industrial Internet Co.,Ltd. (SSE: 601138), Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited (SSE: 688256), and GigaDevice attracted net inflows of 10.2 billion, 4.5 billion, and 2.6 billion yuan respectively, taking the top three spots on the A-share capital inflow list.
Among popular ETFs, the price of the HUABAO SHANGHAI SCI TECH INNOVATION BOARD CHIP TRADING OPEN ENDED INDEX SECURITIES INVESTMENT FUND (SSE: 515260), covering hot concepts like PCB, memory chips, and semiconductor equipment, rose as much as 5.05% intraday, closing up 3.67%, setting another historical high! Its daily turnover reached 115 million yuan, a 40% increase from the previous session. The ETF's breakout on high volume above its listing high could be a buying signal. In fact, the ETF traded at a significant premium intraday, with a closing premium rate as high as 0.63%, reflecting stronger buying pressure.
Among constituent stocks, Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited (SSE: 688256) led gains, rising over 14% to a new high. Lens Technology gained over 8%, while Nexchip, Foxconn Industrial Internet Co.,Ltd. (SSE: 601138), and GigaDevice rose over 7%. Hygon Information, VeriSilicon, Dongshan Precision, Lingyi iTech, and others also advanced.
Recently, AI and inflation have re-emerged as market themes. Some views suggest that domestic AI chips are facing a potential price increase window, driven by both rising upstream costs and an imbalance in local computing power supply and demand.
On one hand, ByteDance's accelerated procurement of domestic AI chips, along with significantly increased shipment expectations for domestic chip companies like Hygon and Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited (SSE: 688256), corroborates recent industry signals such as structural wafer capacity shortages, secondary price increases for power semiconductors, and tight capacity for advanced processes and packaging since June.
On the other hand, current utilization rates for domestic high-end computing cards are near saturation, with major companies continuously revising procurement budgets upward. However, leading chip manufacturers are still constrained by advanced process and packaging capacity. In an environment of high demand, tight capacity, and customers scrambling for resources, expectations for repricing of new-generation domestic GPUs/AI chips like Cambricon's 590/690 and Ascend 950 are naturally rising, with the market already discussing potential price adjustment ranges.
Regarding key individual stocks, Foxconn Industrial Internet Co.,Ltd. (SSE: 601138) topped the A-share capital inflow list. The core market narrative for FII likely revolves around its transformation from a traditional manufacturing giant to a global AI server leader. FII has become a core supply chain partner for major global AI cloud vendors like Nvidia, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services, and is a key supplier for Nvidia's next-generation rack-level servers like the GB200.
Data shows that the underlying index of the HUABAO SHANGHAI SCI TECH INNOVATION BOARD CHIP TRADING OPEN ENDED INDEX SECURITIES INVESTMENT FUND (SSE: 515260) is deeply linked to global tech giants. As of the end of May, the weight of Apple, Nvidia, and Google supply chains accounted for 49.34%, 28.50%, and 23.85% respectively, positioning it to benefit from the industrial expansion and technological innovation of these tech behemoths.
The HUABAO SHANGHAI SCI TECH INNOVATION BOARD CHIP TRADING OPEN ENDED INDEX SECURITIES INVESTMENT FUND (SSE: 515260) and its feeder funds (Class A: 012550, Class C: 012551) passively track the CSI Electronic 50 Index, heavily weighting the semiconductor and consumer electronics industries, and aggregating popular concepts like PCB, MLCC, glass substrates, memory chips, and semiconductor equipment. Its top holdings include Luxshare Precision, Cambricon Technologies Corporation Limited (SSE: 688256), Foxconn Industrial Internet Co.,Ltd. (SSE: 601138), and SMIC. The ETF is also eligible for margin trading and the Stock Connect programs, serving as an efficient tool for one-click exposure to core assets in the electronics sector.
Optical Module Leader Outshines Moutai
Computing power segments like CPO (co-packaged optics) optical modules and computing power leasing remained active, with high-exposure ChiNext AI themes hitting new highs. Among them, optical module giant Zhongji Innolight Co.,Ltd. (SZSE: 300308) surged over 7% to a new high, with its market cap exceeding 1.5 trillion yuan, surpassing Kweichow Moutai. Eoptolink closed up over 4%, also reaching a new high. Computing power leasing concept stock Orient National rose by the 20% daily limit, while memory chip concept stock Ingenic Semiconductor gained over 8%.
Among popular ETFs, after three consecutive days of gains, the price of the HUABAO SHANGHAI SCI TECH INNOVATION BOARD CHIP TRADING OPEN ENDED INDEX SECURITIES INVESTMENT FUND (SZSE: 159363) — the largest and most liquid ETF of its kind — rose another 3.43%, setting a new listing high, with turnover exceeding 1.4 billion yuan, showing a noticeable increase in volume.
Reviewing recent trends, overseas computing power chains, represented by CPO optical modules, have continued to cluster and reach new highs. What are the current pricing logics for this sector?
According to Dongxing Securities analysis, there are two main pricing logics. First, tight supply in the optical interconnect chain. Amid the trend of large-scale construction of AI data centers in North America, and affected by capacity shortages, the market is assigning valuation premiums to core upstream materials, key components, and testing providers for optical modules. Second, emerging technologies like CPO, DCI (data center interconnect), and AI agents are gaining market attention.
Looking at major industry trends and investment strategies for the optical communication sector in the second half of 2026, the institution suggests focusing on:
First, Scaleup becoming an innovation direction for AI data center networks. The development of scaleup networks downstream of data centers is becoming an important application scenario for emerging optical interconnect technologies like CPO/NPO (co-packaged optics/ near-packaged optics). The large-scale application of CPO/NPO will drive silicon photonics architecture to potentially become the mainstream technology path in the optical interconnect industry, with related industry chains likely to benefit deeply.
Second, the current tight supply in the optical interconnect chain is expected to persist throughout 2026. Domestic optical chip companies are poised to benefit from a triple opportunity: overall growth in the optical interconnect market, structural opportunities in CW lasers for silicon photonics architecture, and increasing domestic market share. Meanwhile, global high-speed optical modules are in an expansion cycle, and leading domestic companies have already secured capacity in advance, positioning them to benefit first from order increases.
From a medium-to-long-term allocation perspective, since the strong rebound in overseas computing power chains like CPO optical modules began on April 8 last year, the ChiNext AI theme has continued to outperform similar AI-themed indices. As of June 18th, the underlying index of the high-exposure HUABAO SHANGHAI SCI TECH INNOVATION BOARD CHIP TRADING OPEN ENDED INDEX SECURITIES INVESTMENT FUND (SZSE: 159363) has gained 288% year-to-date, significantly outperforming all comparable AI-themed indices in the broader market, demonstrating sustained excess returns. It also has the lowest maximum drawdown among its peers during this period, offering a relatively better holding experience.
The HUABAO SHANGHAI SCI TECH INNOVATION BOARD CHIP TRADING OPEN ENDED INDEX SECURITIES INVESTMENT FUND (SZSE: 159363) passively tracks the ChiNext Artificial Intelligence Index. For one-click exposure to optical communication leaders, it is recommended to focus on the HUABAO SHANGHAI SCI TECH INNOVATION BOARD CHIP TRADING OPEN ENDED INDEX SECURITIES INVESTMENT FUND (SZSE: 159363) — the largest and most liquid ETF of its kind — and its feeder funds (Class A 023407, Class C 023408). Its underlying index has approximately 50% exposure to optical modules, high exposure to specific leading stocks, and allocates about 30% to AI applications, representing not only a core computing power play but also AI applications.
It is noteworthy that as of June 17, 2026, the latest size of the HUABAO SHANGHAI SCI TECH INNOVATION BOARD CHIP TRADING OPEN ENDED INDEX SECURITIES INVESTMENT FUND (SZSE: 159363) reached 7.81 billion yuan, ranking first in size within the dual-board AI thematic segment across the market. Its average daily turnover over the past six months exceeded 900 million yuan, also ranking first in trading activity within the AI thematic segment.
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