The recovery of the equity market boosts economic sentiment, and securities firms' performance in the first half of the year is expected to drive sector trends.

This week, the securities sector continued to strengthen, becoming the main force behind the Shanghai Composite Index surpassing 3500 points. The Shenwan Securities Industry Index rose nearly 5% in a single week, with 49 securities stocks all seeing gains on a weekly basis, with China Merchants Securities soaring 23%, Haitong Securities and Zhongyuan Securities rising over 10%. The main catalyst for this round of securities market rally is the half-year report preview. On July 9, Red Tower Securities took the lead in announcing the semi-annual performance forecast, with a net profit growth of over 45% year-on-year. Subsequently, Haitong Securities, Guosen Securities, Guolian Minsheng, Huaxi Securities, Guoxin Securities and others followed suit in disclosing their forecasts, with overall profit growth exceeding 50% in the first half of the year. Institutions believe that in the first half of the year, a series of supportive policies have been further implemented, and the performance of A-shares and Hong Kong shares has shown a clear recovery, driving the recovery and improvement of securities brokerage, proprietary trading, and investment banking businesses. It is expected that the overall operating income of listed securities firms in the second quarter will increase by 10% year-on-year, and the net profit attributable to the parent company will increase by 20% year-on-year.