Over 10 billion yuan in major funds have entered the metals sector

Friday, A-shares moved in a choppy upward trend, with the Shanghai Composite Index returning to the 3,900-point level. Innovative drug and lithium battery themed stocks surged, and more than 4,300 stocks rose across the whole market. This week, the Shanghai Composite Index fell cumulatively by 1.1%, the Shenzhen Component Index declined by 0.76%, and the ChiNext Index dropped by 1.68%.

In terms of capital flows, according to Wind data, among 134 secondary industry categories under Shenwan, 28 industries saw net inflows of main (large) fund this week. The metal sector was the most favored. It includes three sub-industries—energy metals, minor metals, and industrial metals—together receiving net inflows of main funds exceeding 10 billion yuan, with energy metals accounting for more than 60%. Industry analysis believes these three sub-industries each have their own independent logic: energy metals benefit from low inventories and a recovery in demand; minor metals present structurally rigid supply-driven opportunities; and industrial metals are influenced by geopolitical conflicts and the reshaping of demand structure. At the current point in time, it is recommended to focus on the lithium sector with low inventories, the tungsten and rare earths sector with tight supply, and the aluminum sector affected by geopolitical conflicts.

Affected by the ongoing escalation of Zimbabwe’s lithium mine export ban, new energy track stocks such as lithium mines and batteries performed strongly on Friday. Rongjie Co., Ltd. achieved four consecutive daily limit-up boards, while Jiangte Motor, Shengxin Lithium Energy, Jin Yuan Shares and others hit the daily limit. In addition to energy metals, the battery sector also attracted more than 5 billion yuan in main funds this week, ranking second on the main net-buying list. Institutions believe that, from a fundamentals perspective, the battery industry’s business conditions are still being continuously revised upward. Orders and production schedules for April are further raised on top of the high-level conditions in March, and the industry’s supply-demand landscape has already become relatively tight. Behind this are global energy storage policy efforts driving demand to grow at a high rate, as well as a sharp increase in overseas recognition of domestically produced new-energy vehicles, leading to a surge in sales.

On the main selling list, the photovoltaic equipment sector was sold off the most, at 9.169 billion yuan. Next were software development, semiconductors, components, and other sectors, with main net outflow amounts all exceeding 7 billion yuan. Sectors such as IT services, power, securities, communications equipment, wind power equipment, consumer electronics, and others were also near the top of the main selling list.

Judging from data on the Top Trader lists, institutional dedicated seats continued to maintain a low level of trading this week. Total turnover was 25.013 billion yuan, including 11.293 billion yuan for buys and 13.72 billion yuan for sells. Looking at individual stocks, the top three by institutional buy amount were Meili Cloud, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable, and Ganfeng Lithium; the top three by sell amount were Mingyang Smart Energy, Meili Cloud, and Dinglong Shares. In terms of stock connect, the special seats for Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect made large-scale buys and sells of stocks such as Luxshare Precision, Yongxing Materials, Ganfeng Lithium, Oryade, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable, Kingfa New Energy, Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Wind Power, and Rongjie Shares, among others.

Among the above stocks, Ganfeng Lithium’s share price hit the daily limit-up on Friday. According to the Top Trader data, the listed business department seat turnover for the whole day was 2.969 billion yuan, accounting for 29.47% of the company’s total turnover that day. Of this, institutions bought 615 million yuan and sold 311 million yuan, resulting in a combined net buy of 304 million yuan. In addition, Shenzhen Stock Connect and China International Capital Corporation Shanghai Branch made net buys of 79.0491 million yuan and 17.5887 million yuan, respectively.

Reporter Chen Hui