Technology sector indices frequently hit new highs; heavy-asset funds' performance "rises with the tide"

Securities Times Reporter Wang Minghong

After the “May Day” holiday, A-shares experienced a relatively strong rally in technology stocks. In just three trading days (May 6 to 8), indices such as the STAR Market 50, ChiNext Index, CSI 2000, and others hit recent highs. In this “structural bull” market led by artificial intelligence, computing power, and semiconductors, as the weights of leading stocks repeatedly reach new highs, funds tracking these indices also perform well.

Comprehensive Explosion of Tech Growth

Wind data shows that from May 6 to 8, the A-share market saw a strong wave of index gains over three trading days. On May 6, the STAR Market 50 index reached 1,715.08 points intraday, hitting a new high in nearly six years. Subsequently, broader and thematic indices such as the ChiNext Innovation 50, STAR 200, ChiNext Index, CSI 2000, Wind All A, and others continued to rise, reaching phased or historical highs.

According to incomplete statistics, recently emerging new highs in indices cover multiple sectors, mainly including the STAR 200, STAR Comprehensive Index, CSI A50, CSI A500, CSI 2000, STAR Innovation & Entrepreneurship 50, ChiNext Index, ChiNext 50, Shenzhen 50, Shenzhen 100, Guosen 2000, Wind Dual Innovation, Wind Land Stock Connect Index, Wind Micro Cap Index, Wind All A, and the average stock price of All A. Such widespread and concentrated index breakthroughs are rare in the history of A-shares, reflecting high overall market bullish sentiment.

It is worth noting that traditional large-cap blue-chip indices such as CSI 300 and SSE 50 have not yet broken their historical highs, further highlighting the structural nature of this rally—market funds are clearly tilted toward the technology growth style.

In terms of attention, stocks that have been hot after the holiday are mainly concentrated in the tech sector. Leading tech giants such as Dongshan Precision (002384), Easy盛 (300502), Zhongji Xuchuang (300308), Cambrian, Haiguang Information, and Lankei Technology (688008) rank high in popularity, with continued investor interest in AI, semiconductors, communications, and other tech themes.

Outstanding Performance of Theme Funds

Funds tracking the aforementioned high-reaching indices also perform remarkably. As of May 8, among ETFs tracking the STAR 50 Index, mainstream products such as the CSI STAR 50 ETF Huaxia, E Fund STAR 50 ETF, ICBC STAR 50 ETF, and Invesco STAR 50 ETF generally achieved over 20% year-to-date returns.

For the CSI 2000 ETF, Bosera’s CSI 2000 ETF leads with a 20.52% year-to-date return, while Huaxia and China Asset Management’s CSI 2000 ETFs also approach 19%. In the STAR Innovation & Entrepreneurship 50 ETF lineup, E Fund’s STAR Innovation & Entrepreneurship ETF has returned 23.73% so far this year, with products from Guotai, Southern Fund, Yinhua Fund, and others exceeding 23%. These cross-market tech index funds are favored by investors and have become important tools for deploying leading stocks in the STAR Market and ChiNext.

In fact, the ChiNext ETF’s performance and scale are even larger. The ChiNext ETF’s year-to-date return is 19.39%, with a scale of 46.26B yuan, leading the market; products like GF ChiNext ETF and Tianhong ChiNext ETF remain actively traded, with returns of 18.98% and 18.92%, respectively.

Notably, as of May 8, the public fund market saw the emergence of the first “double-up” fund of the year—GF Yuanjian Wisdom Selection A, which ranks first in performance with an 112% increase year-to-date. This fund almost fully allocates its position to the AI computing power industry chain, especially focusing on optical communications and storage chips.

AI Computing Power and Other Core Engines

Who is leading this surge to new index highs? A detailed analysis of the constituent stocks of these indices reveals that the artificial intelligence computing power industry chain and semiconductor sectors are currently the dominant forces in the market.

For example, the top ten constituents of the STAR 50 index have a combined weight of 59.94%, showing high concentration. As of May 8, Cambrian leads with a 12.97% weight, followed by Haiguang Information (9.97%) and SMIC (8.59%). These three semiconductor giants together account for over 31%; Lankei Technology (7.18%), SMIC (688012) (5.97%), ChipXing (4.18%), Baiwei Storage (3.50%), Tuojing Technology (3.04%), Kingsoft Office (2.36%), United Imaging Healthcare (2.20%) rank fourth to tenth. It is evident that the top ten constituents are all leading enterprises in semiconductors, AI chips, and high-end manufacturing.

The weighting distribution of the ChiNext Index is more diversified but still focused on the tech theme. CATL (300750) holds the largest weight at 18.53%, while the “double heroes” of optical communications, Zhongji Xuchuang (12.18%) and Easy盛 (7.75%), together account for nearly 39%. Other top ten constituents include East Money (300059) (4.34%), Sungrow Power Supply (300274) (3.37%), Shenghong Technology (300476) (3.31%), Tanfeng Communications (300394) (2.26%), Inovance Technology (300124) (2.24%), Sanhuan Group (300408) (1.78%), Mindray Medical (300760) (1.70%), all occupying significant weights. The top ten constituents of this index are predominantly in the tech manufacturing sector.

Multiple institutions point out that the first-quarter earnings have preliminarily confirmed the high prosperity in the tech sector. In Q1 2026, the profit growth rate of non-financial enterprises in A-shares returned to double digits for the first time since 2021, with net profits in the STAR Market and ChiNext also achieving double-digit growth, validating the high performance of sectors like AI computing power, semiconductors, and lithium batteries.

Looking ahead, most institutions remain cautiously optimistic, believing that the tech theme will continue, but hotspots may further diversify into more sub-sectors.