Shanghai Composite falls 0.89%, ChiNext falls 2.77%, robotics supply chain bucks the trend

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The three major A-share indices fluctuated lower, with the ChiNext Index falling more than 3%. On the board, electric motors, robot actuators, medical aesthetics, reducers, ground armaments, and construction machinery led the gains, while film and cinema chains, childcare services, CPO concept, components, advertising and marketing, and CRO performed poorly and led the market lower. EM_StockImg_Start

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As of the midday close, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.89% to 3,679.86 points; the Shenzhen Component Index fell 1.78% to 11,496.07 points; the ChiNext Index fell 2.77% to 2,620.04 points; the STAR 50 Index fell 1.59% to 1,321.86 points; and the Beijing Stock Exchange 50 Index rose 0.11% to 976.88 points. Across the market, 1,428 stocks rose, 3,985 stocks fell, and 32 stocks hit the daily limit up. Total turnover in the two markets for the half-day amounted to 919.3 billion yuan. EM_Promo_Module_Start EM_Promo_Module_End EM_Promo_Module_Start EM_Promo_Module_End EM_Promo_Module_Start EM_Promo_Module_End EM_Promo_Module_Start

Today's Highlights

First in the industry! Eight departments issue the "15th Five-Year Plan for Improving Industrial Base Capabilities"

On October 22, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and seven other departments jointly released the "15th Five-Year Plan for Improving Industrial Base Capabilities." It is understood that this is the first planning document in the industrial base field released to the public in the industry. The plan proposes anchoring the goal of basically achieving new industrialization, taking the promotion of high-quality development as the theme, advancing the upgrading of industrial bases as the main line, and implementing the industrial base reengineering project as the key lever; it coordinates efforts to shore up weaknesses, strengthen strengths, and lay out frontiers, strengthens the approach of using demand to drive breakthroughs and combining breakthroughs with application, integrates technology research and application promotion, systematically addresses the problem of weak industrial bases, and achieves a comprehensive upgrade of industrial bases toward "strong innovation, high autonomy, and excellent quality."

Sudden U.S. troop buildup! Aircraft carrier deployed! Reports say the U.S. and Israel have formulated a new round of plans to strike Iran

According to the latest report from CCTV News, content posted on social media on the 20th by the U.S. aircraft carrier "Roosevelt" shows that the carrier recently arrived in Japan and carried out resupply. According to U.S. sources, the "Roosevelt" is being dispatched to the Middle East. According to a CCTV News report, the reporter learned on October 21 local time, citing U.S. officials and other informed sources, that the U.S. and Israeli militaries have formulated specific plans to launch another military strike on Iran after the U.S. midterm elections.

After the U.S. market closed on Wednesday Eastern Time, Meta released its third-quarter 2026 financial report and held an earnings call. The company's overall revenue and fourth-quarter guidance both exceeded market expectations. The biggest highlight of this earnings report is clearly Meta's personal AI agent Muse. After delivering impressive early user and commercialization data, company CEO Mark Zuckerberg said bluntly on the earnings call that he plans to increase Muse's computing efficiency tenfold within a year and expects to achieve substantial profitability within several years.

CATL repurchases nearly 800 million yuan in a single day; plan to repurchase up to 40 billion yuan of A-share shares is being accelerated

On the evening of October 21, CATL announced that the company repurchased 3.4886 million A-share shares that day at an average repurchase price of 229.32 yuan per share, spending a total of about 800 million yuan. On October 21, several brokerages issued research reports saying that factors such as changes in shipment structure, tax rate adjustments, and inventory impairment affected CATL's short-term profitability, but its medium- and long-term demand guidance was better than market expectations.

Institutional Views

CITIC Securities: Opportunities can be found amid divergence in the social services sector; leading companies remain resilient in operations

CITIC Securities pointed out that unfavorable weather, high fuel costs, and industry policy adjustments in the third quarter of 2026 are expected to cause some disruption to the social services sector, and divergence within each subsector may continue, but industry leaders remain resilient in operations. By subsector, hotel operations are expected to be generally stable, duty-free profitability is expected to continue recovering, scenic spots, freshly made beverages, and catering are expected to show divergence, OTA and gaming are expected to come under short-term pressure, and human resources outsourcing business is expected to continue growing. Overall, it is recommended to seize investment opportunities around structural demand growth, supply optimization, and improved operations of leading companies. CITIC Securities believes that the valuations of some high-quality leading companies have fallen back to a reasonable range and recommends three main lines: 1. hotel and catering leaders with sound business models and excellent dividend and repurchase ratios; 2. gaming companies and duty-free companies with a steeper demand elasticity slope when prosperity recovers; 3. freshly made beverage and scenic spot leaders with stable operations and growth potential in the pro-cyclical leisure sector; at the same time, it is recommended to pay attention to the OTA, human resources, and exhibition sectors.

Huatai Securities: Peak season and "anti-involution" support express delivery price recovery; recommend paying attention to e-commerce express delivery

A Huatai Securities research report pointed out that the peak season and "anti-involution" support the recovery of express delivery prices, and it recommends paying attention to e-commerce express delivery. In September, upstream consumption growth picked up slightly, with total retail sales of consumer goods, retail sales of goods, and online retail sales of physical goods rising 1.1%, 1.0%, and 2.9% year on year, respectively, but the growth rate of express delivery industry volume continued to slow to 2.1%. The industry's average parcel price rose 3.4% year on year and about 0.15 yuan month on month, extending the price recovery. Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, the peak season and "anti-involution" are expected to jointly support improvement in per-parcel profitability, and it is recommended to pay attention to the peak-season price increase trend.

CSC: Supernode products are being released intensively, and industry segments such as server systems and switch chips will benefit first

A CSC research report states that supernodes, by expanding the ScaleUp interconnect domain, unifying memory addressing, and improving in-rack interconnect efficiency, use systems engineering capabilities to break through the cross-node communication bottlenecks of traditional eight-GPU servers. Compared with traditional computing clusters, supernodes have significant advantages in dimensions such as computing power utilization, interconnect bandwidth, throughput, latency, MoE adaptation, and effective per-GPU throughput. At present, domestic and foreign manufacturers are intensively releasing supernode products, and the industry has officially moved from solution validation into the stage of large-scale delivery. Looking at the segmented links of the industrial chain, industry segments such as server systems, switch chips, switches, and connectors are expected to benefit first. In addition, segments such as PCBs, liquid cooling, power supplies, CPUs, and domestic computing power chips will also continue to benefit as supernode penetration increases.

CICC: AI4S reshapes the intelligent paradigm of new drug R&D; recommend continued attention to three types of companies

A CICC research report points out that AI for Science (AI4S, artificial intelligence-driven scientific research) continues to heat up, with biomedicine being a core application scenario. The efficiency-improving capability of AI drug discovery is gradually emerging, and platform capabilities and the value of drug assets are also being validated in tandem. Capital and industrial investment continue to increase, and platform competition relies more on data and experimental capabilities. AI expands the scope of R&D exploration, and the industrial chain is expected to benefit simultaneously from growth in validation demand and upgrades in service capabilities. It is recommended to continue paying attention to three types of companies: 1. Companies that rely on differentiated technology platforms to effectively improve R&D efficiency; 2. Companies that can continuously produce high-quality pipelines, are expected to achieve key clinical progress, and have out-licensing potential; 3. Companies that possess experimental feedback capabilities and automated experimental systems and can undertake new validation demand.

Sinolink Securities: The low-valuation brokerage sector offers relatively high cost-effectiveness

A Sinolink Securities research report points out that for the capital market, the CSRC places market stability in the primary position and adheres to seeking progress while maintaining stability. By improving market-stabilization mechanisms, promoting the entry of medium- and long-term funds, cracking down on illegal share reductions, and encouraging buybacks and increased holdings, it enhances the resilience of the capital market, and through more inclusive financing-side reforms it enhances the vitality of the capital market. For brokerages, measures such as investment and financing-side reform, further expansion of interconnectivity, and accelerated construction of internationally first-class investment banks create opportunities in brokerages' domestic and cross-border wealth management, investment banking, investment, and other businesses. Against the backdrop of market stabilization, the low-valuation brokerage sector offers relatively high cost-effectiveness.

Soochow Securities: Value-format snacks are shifting from "land-grabbing" to efficiency competition; top picks are Mingming Very Busy and Wanchen Group

A Soochow Securities research report states that Japan's discount retail development experience provides an important reference for understanding the growth path of China's value-format snacks, as both Don Quijote and Kobe Bussan have gone through a process of upgrading from single-point low-price advantages to systematized capabilities. China's value-format snack industry is also moving from the early "land-grabbing" stage into the efficiency competition stage, and future competition will shift from store count to procurement scale, warehousing and distribution efficiency, product development, and franchise management capabilities. Attention should be paid to opportunities for China's leading value-format snack companies to expand nationwide and improve efficiency, with top picks Mingming Very Busy (01768) and Wanchen Group (300972.SZ). In-article ad in the middle of the main text