Analysts Favor China AI Stocks as CSI 300 Gains 4.5% Despite Weak Retail Sales
Updated
Updated · CNBC · May 24
Analysts Favor China AI Stocks as CSI 300 Gains 4.5% Despite Weak Retail Sales
10 articles · Updated · CNBC · May 24
More than half of Gavekal portfolio manager Leonid Mironov’s newly approved China fund is tied to semiconductors, self-sufficiency and high-tech manufacturing, while consumer and health care make up just 6%.
Analysts said AI remains China’s clearest equity theme because earnings are holding up even as April retail sales posted their weakest growth since the end of Covid restrictions.
That tech trade has narrowed over the past two months into semiconductors, hard tech, software and hyperscalers, with many favored hardware names listed on mainland A-share markets rather than in Hong Kong.
The split shows up in performance: the CSI 300 is up more than 4.5% this year while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is flat, as investors reward policy-backed smaller and mid-cap tech names.
Stock pickers still differ on where to extend the AI bet—Mironov prefers Tencent, Alibaba and hardware names such as Anji Microelectronics, while Morgan Stanley is overweight Zhipu, MiniMax, Alibaba and Cambricon with a 2,000 yuan target.
As China's AI sector booms, can it thrive if the broader consumer economy continues to falter?
With US restrictions fueling local firms, is China winning the chip war by building its own self-reliant ecosystem?