How to Hedge Against AI Risks? ICBC and CCB Both Hit Record Highs | Equity Market Daily

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AI summary: Institutions favor a dividend-based foundation and balanced allocation, and recommend increasing exposure to high-dividend assets and gold to hedge against AI volatility; Huatai is bullish on the value strategy. Bank fundamentals are solid and dividend payouts are rising, driving the sector higher; the humanoid robot industry is accelerating toward commercialization, with Tesla and others advancing mass production, bringing catalysts to the industrial chain.

The three major A-share indices pulled back collectively today, with the Shanghai Composite down 1.48%, the Shenzhen Component down 2.96%, and the ChiNext Index down 4.37%. Trading volume across the Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing markets totaled 1.54 trillion yuan, up 100 billion from yesterday. Industry sectors showed a broad decline, with only medical aesthetics, robotics and construction machinery rising against the trend, while film and cinema, advertising and marketing, media, components, education, internet e-commerce and gaming sectors led the declines.

I. [Core views of major brokerages]

1. CICC: How to hedge against AI risk?

2. Huatai Securities: The value strategy is still expected to outperform

As of the end of September 2026, the discount rate and reflation signals were lit, while the growth scarcity signal was not. With the Fed raising rates in September and the domestic PPI-CPI scissors gap at 3.0pp, the first two signals are highly likely to remain lit in the short term, and the value strategy is still expected to outperform the CSI 800. The current value position is at its highest tier, which also means bearing full industry deviations: about 31pp underweight in TMT and about 45pp overweight in financials and real estate relative to the CSI 800, the highest combined level since 2010. What needs to be watched next is the growth scarcity signal; if that signal is also lit, both the confidence in value outperformance and the expected excess return could be higher.

3. China Galaxy Securities: Firmly bullish on A-share medium- and long-term opportunities

We remain consistently bullish on the medium- and long-term performance of A-shares and advise investors to view short-term overseas disturbances rationally. On the one hand, use dividend assets as a base position to enhance allocation stability; on the other hand, pay attention to allocation opportunities in the technology sector, and in light of third-quarter report performance, identify high-quality companies with relatively clear growth paths and strong earnings realization capabilities amid industrial transformation and upgrading, focusing on targets that have adjusted sufficiently in earlier periods and whose share price performance has diverged from fundamentals, and position opportunistically.

II. [ICBC and CCB hit record highs again]

1. China Galaxy Securities: Preference for the banking sector is rising

The banking sector's continued recovery is benefiting from the gradual rollout of interim dividends and passive fund inflows, heating up market allocation preference. Listed banks continue to benefit from improved liability costs, while marginal stabilization in non-performing loan generation and ample provisioning buffers sustain fundamental resilience. We remain bullish on the dividend defensive allocation value of the banking sector.

2. East Money Securities: Focus on the two main lines of improving fundamentals and stable dividends

In 1H26, listed banks' revenue and net profit attributable to parent grew 7.4% and 3.0% year on year, with growth rates basically stable compared with 1Q26. Among them, large state-owned banks saw marginal improvement in both revenue and profit, with revenue growth leading the industry. Joint-stock banks have higher dividend yields, and large banks have generally raised interim dividends. On fundamentals, focus on Bank of Suzhou, Bank of Ningbo, Qilu Bank and Bank of Qingdao, where revenue and profit growth and asset quality support each other. On dividends, focus on the increase in payout ratios at large banks, as well as banks such as Industrial Bank, Bank of Jiangsu, Bank of Nanjing and Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank, whose dividend yields and profitability are relatively well matched, and assess valuation reasonableness using PB-ROE.

3. Guotai Haitong Securities: Resilience amid steady improvement

We expect sample banks' 26Q3 (cumulative basis, same below) revenue and net profit attributable to parent growth of 9.1% and 5.3%, respectively, up 1.2pc and 1.2pc from 26H1 growth, with revenue growth expected to strengthen further and profit growth also showing a steady improvement trend. Focus on the following directions: 1) recommend banks with both strong performance and dividend attributes; 2) if market style is expected to balance, the sector has allocation opportunities, and we recommend large state-owned banks.

III. [Robotics gets another boost]

NVIDIA announced an upgrade to its Isaac general-purpose robotics development platform, launching a new humanoid robot reference framework, simulation workflows and data tools aimed at accelerating general-purpose robot development. Tesla disclosed its Optimus timetable, saying it will put the AI5 chip into use in April next year and begin external deliveries by the end of the year.

1. Wanlian Securities: The dawn of commercialization

The humanoid robot industry is currently at the dawn of moving from technological breakthroughs to large-scale commercialization. On the supply side, Tesla, Unitree Robotics, AgiBot and UBTECH are steadily advancing mass production; on the demand side, population aging and rising labor costs provide a long-term driver. At the same time, with the combined push of policy and capital, AI large models continue to breathe life into robots, and humanoid robots are expected to form an emerging industry, gradually moving from B-end to C-end, with broad future market space.

2. Huajin Securities: The robotics industrial chain is expected to regain attention

We believe that as embodied intelligent robot industrial applications gradually land and Tesla's Optimus V3 mass production process accelerates, the robotics industrial chain is expected to regain attention. Since many humanoid robot components share technological origins with the automotive industry, we recommend focusing on OEMs with both brain and hardware iteration capabilities, companies with the capability to industrialize humanoid robot components, and, for power and energy components, component suppliers.

3. Founder Securities: Humanoid robots accelerate production line deployment

The humanoid robot industry is gradually shifting from technology demonstrations and prototype iteration to production line validation, supply chain stocking and manufacturing capacity ramp-up. Recently, disclosures related to Tesla's robot supply chain show that the Optimus design is becoming finalized and mass production expectations are heating up; domestic auto parts production lines have also seen cases of routine humanoid robot operations, further advancing industrialization. Auto parts companies with precision manufacturing, large-scale production and collaborative customer development capabilities are expected to extend their existing technological accumulation into the robotics industrial chain. Mid-article body Embedded advertisement