Key Takeaways:
China's Shanghai Composite rose 1.07% as semiconductor stocks led a broad rally after SK Hynix announced a $38.4 billion chip-fab investment and warned of a deepening storage-chip shortage.
"Storage supply gaps will extend into 2027, putting domestic module makers into a profit ramp," China Merchants Securities said in a note.
The semiconductor index jumped 5.22%, with storage chips up 4.58% and advanced packaging up more than 4%. More than 4,300 stocks rose across the Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing exchanges, with turnover at 2.39 trillion yuan, up about 250 billion yuan from the prior session. The ChiNext index gained 2.47% and the STAR 50 index rose 4%.
CXMT closed up 12% at a record 61.80 yuan, lifting its market value to 4.13 trillion yuan, as SK Hynix chairman Choi Tae-won said customer demand is nearly double available supply and predicted next year would be the biggest supply gap. SK Hynix plans to invest $38.4 billion in a new South Korean fab. SanDisk has signed agreements covering at least $93.9 billion in expected revenue, while SMIC posted record second-quarter revenue of $3.01 billion, up 36.1% from a year earlier.
Storage Shortage Drives Chip Rally
The rally extended across the chip supply chain. Tongfu Microelectronics, Youyan New Materials and Juhua Materials hit their daily limit, while Zhongwei Semiconductor jumped 16.81% and Puya Semiconductor rose 13.38%. GigaDevice gained 6.35%, Montage Technology added 5.88% and SMIC advanced 2.93%.
JPMorgan said second-quarter earnings across the global semiconductor supply chain delivered an "unmistakably bullish" signal, with pricing power spreading from memory chips to equipment and materials. The bank noted that Samsung Electronics has struck five long-term agreements with data-center customers, while SK Hynix has signed 10 contracts, all based on five-year rolling terms with prepayments.
Tencent's second-quarter capital expenditure hit a record 52.8 billion yuan, up 176% from a year earlier, supporting sustained demand for domestic computing chips. ByteDance has stepped up purchases of domestic chips from Huawei, Hygon, Cambricon and others. The rally also lifted Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index 1.34% and the Hang Seng Tech Index 1.58%, while China's 30-year government bond futures fell 0.11% and the container-shipping index jumped 10.89%.
Moutai Slips on First Profit Decline Since 2001
Kweichow Moutai fell 3.64% to 1,292.56 yuan, breaking below the 1,300 yuan level, after posting its first "revenue up, profit down" half-year report since its 2001 listing. First-half net profit fell 1.95% to 44.52 billion yuan, with second-quarter profit down 36% from the first quarter. Central Huijin and China Securities Finance both exited the top-10 shareholder list.
The baijiu sector fell more than 3%, with Luzhou Laojiao, Shanxi Fenjiu and Wuliangye all declining. The divergence between surging chip stocks and sliding liquor names shows investors rotating into AI-driven hardware as consumer staples face earnings pressure, a shift that could keep the semiconductor complex outperforming through the rest of the year as storage expansion and domestic substitution accelerate.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
