A-shares surged then pulled back, with the Shanghai Composite Index falling 0.38% at midday

Everyday Business News reporter: Liu Mingtau    Editor: Ye Feng

On March 31, A-shares rose and then fell, with the ChiNext Index down more than 2%. As of the morning close, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.38% to 3,908.28 points, the Shenzhen Component Index fell 1.45%, the ChiNext Index fell 2.36%, the CSI 300 fell 0.58%, the Beizhi 50 fell 0.1%, and the STAR Market 50 fell 1.68%. Trading volume of A-shares for the first half of the day was 1.34 trillion yuan.

On the liquidity front, the People’s Bank of China announced that on March 31 it conducted a 13.4k yuan, 7-day reverse repurchase operation via a fixed-rate, quantity bidding approach. The operation rate was 1.40%, with bidding volume of 8B yuan and winning volume of 32.5B yuan.

On the news front, in March, the Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, the Non-Manufacturing Business Activity Index, and the composite PMI Output Index all returned to the expansion zone, at 50.4%, 50.1%, and 50.5% respectively. Compared with the previous month, they rose by 1.4, 0.6, and 1.0 percentage points, respectively, indicating a rebound in China’s economic outlook.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and nine other departments jointly issued the Action Plan for Promoting Innovative Development of the Internet of Things Industry (2026-2028). It specifies that through five major initiatives—promoting innovative upgrades for IoT devices, improving the service effectiveness of IoT platforms, cultivating IoT application scenarios, strengthening the IoT network infrastructure, and fostering an IoT industry development ecosystem—it will drive innovative development in the IoT industry. It will further accelerate the full integration of IoT technology into areas including production, consumption, and social governance, promote deep integration between the digital economy and the real economy, and help develop new quality productive forces.

As for sectors, the high-speed rail concept remained strong; the commercial spaceflight concept moved higher against the trend; and storage chip concepts collectively declined.

As a core carrier for long- and medium-distance passenger transport, high-speed rail has already accounted for 80% of the nation’s railway passenger departures and 69% of passenger turnover. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, high-speed EMU trains cumulatively transported 12.8 billion passenger trips, up 39.2% compared with the “13th Five-Year Plan” period. The rail transit equipment industry is currently in a critical stage of transitioning from scale expansion to quality-and-efficiency returns. Policy guidance and market demand provide dual support, making long-term investment value stand out.

Here, by integrating the latest research reports from multiple brokerages, we introduce four companies for reference only.

1. Jinxi Axle

The company adheres to doing railway equipment business with greater precision and refinement. Based on stabilizing its current domestic market share for existing products, it will focus on expanding into subdivided areas such as domestic high-speed EMU axles, into international emerging market regions, and into markets in countries along the “Belt and Road,” to solidify its core business base in rail transit equipment.

2. CRRC (China Railway Construction Corporation) Industry

With support from policies, the pace of updating and replacing transportation equipment is expected to accelerate, which is favorable for the company’s long-term revenue growth from transportation equipment businesses such as turnouts and crossovers.

3. Northern International

The company’s coking coal business in Mongolia operates an integrated business model of “mining services—logistics transportation—customs clearance warehousing—coking coal sales.” It benefits from rising coking coal prices. Power and energy investment and construction businesses in Eastern Europe and elsewhere continue to expand, and it is increasing efforts to develop overseas markets such as the Middle East.

4. CRRC

The domestic rail transit industry continues to enjoy high levels of business confidence. Nationwide railway fixed-asset investment remains at a high level, and demand for EMU train replacements, major overhauls, and related equipment continues to be released. As a leading rail transit equipment provider, CRRC is expected to fully benefit.

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