AI hardware sector rebounds across the board: SK Hynix earnings spark rally, Zhongji Innolight up nearly 6.5%

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On October 28, the AI hardware sector rebounded significantly, with concept sectors such as CPO, memory chips, PCB, and AI chips all moving higher. The ChiNext Index surged 3%, and nearly 4,500 stocks across the market rose.

Specifically, Jin'an Guoji, Shiyun Circuit, Guangyang Co., and Yingfang Micro hit the daily limit early in the session, while the "Yi Zhong Tian" trio rose sharply together. Among them, Zhongji Innolight gained nearly 6.5%, with half-day turnover exceeding 12 billion yuan; Lianxun Instruments' share price returned above 1,000 yuan; and JPT, Sidike, Silergy, and many other stocks rose more than 10%.

Multiple catalysts in resonance

At the overseas level, today's biggest trigger came from SK Hynix. Its latest earnings report showed that the memory giant's third-quarter revenue reached 104.62 trillion won, surpassing the 100 trillion won mark in a single quarter for the first time in history; operating profit was 83.33 trillion won, surging 631% year-on-year; both indicators set new quarterly records. The company expects the memory market's supply shortage to persist until 2030, and said it will significantly expand investment next year, while also announcing a 100 trillion won shareholder return plan.

Just the day before, Musk rarely "talked up" memory on social media. He refuted forecasts by relevant institutions and said the memory capacity required by robots will exceed the total of all other devices on Earth; memory chip manufacturers may usher in even greater market opportunities.

The AI financing wave is also intensifying: Anthropic officially submitted its IPO prospectus this week and could potentially mount the largest IPO in history. At the same time, major banks such as Bank of America and Citigroup will provide $63 billion in financing for it to purchase Broadcom AI chips and networking equipment; Meta raised its capital expenditure plan for this year, and its $25 billion stock offering was five times oversubscribed; SpaceX also finalized a $40 billion chip financing lease agreement.

At the domestic level, performance verification is following suit. Last night, several PCB industry chain companies disclosed their third-quarter reports, with collectively strong profit growth, and companies in tracks such as memory chips and optical modules also generally reported impressive financial results.

Fund flows also showed signs of warmth: equity ETFs recorded net inflows for 17 consecutive trading days, with cumulative inflows exceeding 370 billion yuan; the first batch of active ETFs is nearing the end of issuance, with 11 products already completing the 2 billion yuan issuance target. They are expected to be established as soon as this week and will build positions immediately upon establishment.

In addition, rising expectations of geopolitical easing also provided some support for the tech stock rebound.

Are mispriced opportunities emerging?

Chen Hao, a technology hardware analyst at CICC, believes that the domestic and international artificial intelligence industries will remain highly prosperous next year and the year after. The fundamentals of strong AI industry demand and still-constrained supply have not changed, and he expects domestic AI computing power demand to remain at a high level for at least the next two years.

On the performance front, Ren Zhiqiang, president assistant of Huafu Securities and director of its research institute, provided a set of data: as of October 26, the 1,695 A-share listed companies that had disclosed third-quarter reports saw revenue grow 13.77% year-on-year, with net profit attributable to parent companies growing 22.48%; among the 99 companies that have issued earnings forecasts but not yet disclosed formal financial reports, the high-growth targets are likewise concentrated in the electronics industry chain, including semiconductors, PCB, optical chips, and AI computing power, further strengthening the earnings certainty of the high-prosperity manufacturing main line.

Chen Gang, chief strategist at Soochow Securities, analyzed from a valuation perspective: as of October 23, the ChiNext Index's trailing twelve-month price-to-earnings ratio was 31.4 times, merely at the 17.8th percentile of the past 10 years. Its dynamic price-to-earnings ratios for 2026 and 2027 are only 23.1 times and 16.3 times, respectively, having entered a clearly undervalued range.

"For growth tracks such as AI, where industry trends are clear and earnings are accelerating, the cost-effectiveness has become quite prominent," he further noted. In this round of adjustment, the index's short-term downward slope was too steep, and volatility quickly broke through historical thresholds, indicating that bearish forces have been concentratedly released. After extreme volatility appears, the market often enters a phase of volatility convergence, and mean reversion will support a gradual recovery in the market.

In the view of Li Lifeng, chief strategist at Huaxi Securities, domestic liquidity remains accommodative, and the fundamentals of leaders on the STAR Market and ChiNext have not seen a comparable collapse in prosperity; broad-based index products continued to see large net inflows against the trend during the market adjustment, indicating that institutional funds recognize the allocation value of A-shares at current levels.

Lianchu Securities corroborated the "mispricing" from one detail: although the U.S. and South Korean semiconductor sectors had rebounded sharply earlier, the A-share semiconductor sector fell sharply again on Tuesday, showing that pro-cyclical amplification of market sentiment has approached its extreme, and uncertain events can easily amplify disturbances.

However, some views hold that with the Fed's October policy meeting result imminent and overseas tech leaders' earnings and capital expenditure guidance still in a verification window, the sustainability of the rebound still depends on further delivery of performance and orders.

(Source: East Money Research Center) Middle of the article Embedded advertisement