Recently, the A-share market has broadly stayed in a choppy range, with index performance leaning weak. Data shows that as of the close on October 12, a total of 14 stocks had posted record-high closing prices over the past three trading sessions. These stocks show notable differences in industry distribution, valuation levels, and the degree of capital participation.
In terms of industry distribution, the 14 stocks span 8 Shenwan first-level industries, but the spread is uneven. Among them, bank stocks account for as many as 6, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of China, China CITIC Bank, Bank of Changsha, and Bank of Hangzhou; adding Jiangsu Financial Leasing, which also belongs to the financial sector, financial stocks total 7, making up half of all the stocks hitting new highs. The remaining 7 are spread across 6 industries—machinery equipment, basic chemicals, computer, pharmaceuticals and biotech, defense and military, and communications—most of which are companies listed relatively recently since 2021, with Yute Optoelectronics debuting on the Beijing Stock Exchange on October 9 this year.
In terms of valuation and dividends, the pricing logic of the two types of assets differs. The price-to-book (PB) ratios of the 6 bank stocks are all below 1 times, putting them in a below-net-asset state, with Bank of Changsha the lowest at just 0.53 times and Bank of Hangzhou the highest at only 0.90 times; their dynamic price-to-earnings (PE, TTM) ratios are concentrated between 4.75 times and 9.02 times; and their dividend yields (TTM) are all above 3%, with Bank of Changsha and China CITIC Bank reaching 4.57% and 4.27%, respectively. By contrast, growth stocks show clear valuation divergence: Wuzhou Medical and Innostellar have PE (TTM) ratios as high as 446.53 times and 575.36 times, respectively; Huashi Technology and Gaoling Information, due to losses, have incalculable PE ratios. Fu Yifu, a specially appointed researcher at Suning Bank, told a Securities Daily reporter that recent policies such as mortgage interest subsidies have improved expectations for banks' net interest margins and asset quality, and combined with stabilizing earnings, the earlier pessimistic pricing of bank assets is gradually being corrected; in a low-interest-rate and choppy-market environment, bank stocks' low valuation, high dividend yield, and large weighting make them a natural choice for long-term capital to absorb defensive demand.
In terms of turnover rate and trading value, the differences in capital participation are obvious. On the one hand, Yute Optoelectronics had a turnover rate of 70.90% on October 12, while Huashi Technology and Shanshui Technology were at 23.04% and 11.10%, respectively; on the other hand, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China CITIC Bank both had turnover rates of 0.13%, Bank of China was at 0.16%, and Bank of Hangzhou and Bank of Changsha were between 0.53% and 0.67%. Over the same period, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China recorded a trading value of 2.971 billion yuan, Bank of China 2.273 billion yuan, and China Construction Bank 1.632 billion yuan, the three largest among the 14 stocks. Li Daxiao, former chief economist at a brokerage, told a Securities Daily reporter that bank stocks are very large in size, so their turnover rates are naturally low, but they can also accommodate large capital inflows, which is why their trading values are very high; newly listed stocks have very small floats, so their turnover rates are high while their trading values are low.
The differences in industry and valuation were also reflected in that day's trading. All 7 financial stocks rose, with China Construction Bank, China CITIC Bank, and Bank of China gaining 3.01%, 3.00%, and 2.95%, respectively; 5 of the 7 non-financial stocks fell. Fu Yifu believes that with bank stocks strengthening while small-cap growth stocks come under pressure, the "siphon effect" of capital contracting from the growth side and concentrating into the bank side is quite evident, and the fact that both hit new highs at the same time may simply be rotation within the same capital pool across different windows. He further said that this is not the two types of assets being increased in allocation at the same time, but rather a passive rebalancing in a choppy market—a barbell characteristic is emerging, but a systematic style switch has not yet formed.
Against the backdrop of a wobbling, weakening index, the fact that 14 stocks bucked the trend to set new highs reflects more of a structural adjustment of capital under a stock-game setup, and how this unfolds later still depends on the delivery of each company's fundamentals.
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