A-share midday review | Individual stocks of large and small caps continue to differentiate, with the micro-cap stock index falling by more than 3%. The stock prices of the four major banks continue to hit new historical highs.

After opening high, the three major stock indices showed weak volatility, with individual stocks in both large and small cap markets continuing to diverge. By the close of the market, the Shanghai Composite Index fell by 0.31%, the Shenzhen Component Index fell by 0.82%, and the ChiNext Index fell by 0.83%. The micro-cap stock index fell by 3.62%. On the market, Chinese character stock sectors surged, with Sinoma Science & Technology hitting the daily limit up, following Sinoma Energy Conservation's daily limit up; banking and insurance stocks fluctuated higher, with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rising by over 3% and total market value surpassing 2.5 trillion yuan; medical service concept stocks were active, with New Journey Health Technology Group hitting the daily limit up; brain-machine interface concept stocks rose across the board, with Jiangsu Apon Medical Technology rising by over 10%; Siasun Robot & Automation concept stocks continued to be active, with Zhejiang Jingxing Paper Joint Stock rising by limit up in bidding. On the downside, early internet e-commerce concept stocks declined, as did the civil explosives sector, while diamond incubation concept stocks continued to adjust. In terms of main funding, funds favored computer equipment and auto parts industries, while funds fled the black home appliances and general equipment industries. Institutional Views Looking ahead, Chen Guo, Chief Strategy Officer of China Securities Co., Ltd., believes that in the early next year, there is still hope for further easing policies, and the anticipated reserve requirement ratio cut and interest rate cut are worth waiting for. Funds are expected to further flow into the A-share market, and it is expected that the New Year's market will continue to rally. Regarding the future market, China Securities Co., Ltd. Chief Strategy Officer Chen Guo believes that further easing policies are expected early next year, and the anticipated reserve requirement ratio cut and interest rate cut are worth waiting for. Funds are expected to flow further into the A-share market, and it is expected that the New Year's market will continue to rally. Overall, thematic investment rotation is significant, and it is recommended to focus on segmented areas supported by policies, such as AI hardware and consumption upgrades. CICC: Expansion of the catering and tourism policy in 2025 is expected to bring about a warm demand and a turning point in quantity and price CICC's research report points out that in 2024, hotels and tourism generally face "stable quantity and descending price" under the high base of the previous year, catering, duty-free, and personal services continue to face quantity and price pressure since 2023, the downward valuation is slightly rebounding from the bottom but the valuation of leading companies is still low. Looking ahead to 2025, the expansion of the catering and tourism policy is expected to bring about a demand rebound and a turning point in quantity and price, it is suggested to pay attention to the industry "infrastructure." Guotai Junan: The AI ASIC market is expected to grow rapidly Guotai Junan's securities research report believes that ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) is designed for specific scenarios, with supporting communication interconnection and software ecology. Although the current single ASIC computing power is still lacking compared to the most advanced GPU, the computing power efficiency of the entire ASIC cluster may be better than comparable GPUs. It also has obvious price and power consumption advantages, and is expected to be more widely used in AI inference and training. Positive about the large-scale application of ASICs bringing ROI improvement to cloud vendors, and also recommend focusing on related targets in the custom chip industry chain. AI ASICs have power and cost advantages, are still in the early stages of development, and the market size is expected to grow rapidly. Hot Sectors 1. Banking and insurance stocks fluctuated higher Banking and insurance stocks rose, with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rising by over 3% and total market value surpassing 2.5 trillion yuan, Hubei Biocause Pharmaceutical rose by over 7%, The People's Insurance, Agricultural Bank Of China, Bank Of China, China Construction Bank Corporation followed suit. Comments: On December 17, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission issued "Several Opinions on Improving and Strengthening the Market Value Management of Central Enterprises Holding Listed Companies." Galaxy Securities' research report stated that the management of central enterprises' market value has been strengthened again, and the valuation of banks is expected to benefit. 2. Medical and healthcare stocks were active Early on, medical and healthcare stocks were active, with New Journey Health Technology Group hitting the daily limit up, Hitgen Inc., PharmaResources, Innovative Medical Management, Jiangsu Aoyang Health Industry, Boji Medical Technology, ChemPartner PharmaTech all opening higher. Comments: In terms of news, the State Council meeting pointed out the need to deepen the reform of drug and medical device supervision throughout the entire process, create a globally competitive innovation ecosystem, and promote China's transition from a major pharmaceutical country to a strong pharmaceutical country. 3. Brain-machine interface concept stocks rose across the board Brain-machine interface concept stocks were active in the early market, with Jiangsu Apon Medical Technology rising by over 10%, Innovative Medical Management, Beijing Chieftain Control Technology Group, Sanbo Hospital Management, Keeson Technology Corporation following suit. Comments: On the news front, the Shanghai Municipal People's Government issued the "Shanghai Development Plan for Medical Artificial Intelligence (2025-2027)", which includes deepening cutting-edge basic research. Focus on cognitive intelligence, reinforcement learning, and other cutting-edge areas of artificial intelligence.Expand research layout, support innovation exploration in cutting-edge medical fields such as neuroscience, brain-machine interfaces, and computational biology. Encourage closer collaboration among national laboratories, research institutions, and medical facilities in Shanghai, striving to generate a group of leading and disruptive theoretical achievements.This article is reposted from "Tencent Self-selected Stocks"; edited by GMTEight: Wang Qiujia.