A-share market morning express | The three major stock indexes collectively opened lower with AI applications, pharmaceuticals, and liquor sectors leading the gains.

On May 8th, the three major A-share stock indexes collectively opened lower, with the Shanghai Composite Index falling by 0.39% and the ChiNext Index dropping by 1.07%. On the market, AI applications, pharmaceuticals, and liquor sectors led the gains, while semiconductor, optical communication, and storage chip sectors were among top losers. Institutional Views on the Future Market: Zhongtai: In the context of global geopolitical disturbances and strengthened national security orientation, energy security has become a main theme for medium to long-term allocation. Zhongtai believes that overall, in the first quarter of 2026, A-share earnings as a whole have significantly recovered, with revenue and profit growth rates returning to the relatively high range of 2021-2022, showing a typical feature of "total improvement, structural differentiation". However, in terms of structure, the current profit growth is not a broad-based recovery, but is mainly contributed by a few high-activity directions: the TMT industry chain with AI as its core and the electric power equipment sector have become the main sources of increment, driving significant performance improvement in the Science and Technology Innovation Board and the ChiNext Board; at the same time, upstream resources such as non-ferrous metals achieved high growth driven by the double demands of "new energy + AI". In comparison, the profit recovery in traditional consumer and cyclical sectors remains slow, with some industries still in the early stage of de-stocking or demand recovery. Investment Suggestions: 1. Internal rotation within the technology sector: switch from overseas mapping to localization: the internal focus of the current technology sector has gradually shifted from the ChiNext direction represented by optical modules to the Science and Technology Innovation Board centered around semiconductor equipment and chips. 2. In the context of global geopolitical disturbances and strengthened national security orientation, energy security becomes a main theme for medium to long-term allocation, with clear policy support and capital expenditure logic for new energy chains, power grid equipment, etc. 3. Cyclical sectors: anti-inflantion and supply contraction overlap, resource products may see a re-pricing. Focus on resource sectors represented by coal, non-ferrous metals, and petroleum and petrochemicals, as well as the Shenzhen Agricultural Power Group chain. CITIC SEC: Maintain K-shaped thinking, continue to focus on China's competitive advantage segments. CITIC SEC believes that AI and energy transformation constitute a new barbell structure in the current global turbulent perspective. The huge potential of AI forces major countries to invest for competition and security reasons; the hidden dangers in the petrochemical energy supply chain make the global industry hesitant to invest on a large scale in fossil energy processing industry, also for competitive and security considerations. However, both have created sustainable supply-demand gaps, driven by either demand or supply constraints. In times of turmoil, capturing opportunities in other industries becomes more challenging, requiring constant K-shaped thinking and continuous focus on advantageous segments. The underlying logic of allocation still lies in the revaluation of China's pricing power in manufacturing, with the most representative industries being new energy, chemical industry, non-ferrous metals, and power equipment. Continuously monitor the progress of domestic AI, the logic of "quantity" eruption on the hardware side remains a direction with large expected differences in the AI chain, continuing to favor domestic calculation power; as top-notch domestic models shift from "usable" to "good to use", domestic models will capture a portion of the high-value paid market share, leading to a steep growth in domestic cloud service demand, making cloud services increasingly scarce, decreasing the possibility of price wars, and instead resulting in revenue growth for the entire industry. Therefore, in the next stage of domestic AI applications, the best choice would be cloud service providers. Additionally, it is recommended to increase allocation to some undervalued varieties, with a focus on securities firms and insurance companies. For cyclical appreciating varieties, such as AIDC chain and lithium battery chain, the cyclical growth prosperity continues, but the expected differences are relatively smaller, and the trend of narrowing is faster, so it is recommended to focus on the most scarce supply-demand segments; traditional cyclical industries in the energy sector should downplay short-term stock price speculation and firmly trade based on the facts of blocked trade routes, shortage of spot goods, and widening price differences. Founder: The ChiNext Index hits an 11-year high, the upward trend is expected to continue, and the future market will focus on 3 major directions Founder states that looking at the whole month of May, against the backdrop of global trade pattern improvement and resonance of technological industry highlights, the market is expected to end its fluctuations and move towards a new upward trend, similar to the period from June to October last year. Once external factors weaken, the gradual improvement of the domestic economy will be discovered and fully priced in by the market, suggesting investors actively position themselves for the main uptrend of the year. With the easing of tensions between the US and Iran, the expectation of Trump's visit to China, and the high activity in the technological industry, the A-share market is expected to continue its upward trend, with a focus on the following directions: 1. New productive forces direction: artificial intelligence, embedded intelligence, new energy, controllable nuclear fusion, quantum technology, aerospace, and other "Thirteen Five" key areas are worth focusing on. 2. Directions benefiting from the weakening US dollar: gold, non-ferrous metals, and Hong Kong stocks dividends and Hang Seng technology with high dividends and valuation recovery space. 3. Safe assets direction: focus on overseas security demand overflow. Key recommendations: new energy, photovoltaic, wind power, energy storage, power equipment; materials and equipment: coal chemical industry, minor metals, fiber optic cables, engineering machinery. This article was reprinted from Tencent Selection Stock, GMTEight Editor: Chen Wenfang.