AI Apps Surge as MiniMax, ByteDance, DeepSeek Launch Models; Hardware and Memory Chips Diverge
Chinese equities rebounded on Friday, with the ChiNext and STAR indices giving up earlier gains. After last week's risk-off, the market is consolidating, with trading activity picking up but lacking broad-based strength. AI application stocks surged as MiniMax launched the multimodal model MiniMax H3 at about one-third the price of comparable flagship models, and ByteDance unveiled Seedance 2.5 for video creation. However, upstream sectors such as compute hardware and memory chips diverged and weakened, with high-profile names like Demingli, Dongshan Precision, Shengyi Technology, and Fenghua Advanced Technology hitting their daily limits only to reverse lower, indicating profit-taking and capital outflows. Overhang from trapped positions suggests further consolidation is needed.
Equities rebounded across the board on Friday, with the ChiNext and STAR indices giving up earlier gains after hitting intraday highs. Following last week's concentrated risk-off, the broader market has entered a consolidation phase at the bottom, with structural shifts in the market. Trading activity has picked up, but the index level lacks a basis for a comprehensive rally, and capital rotation among sectors is evident.