Today, bank stocks are pulling back against the backdrop of recent record highs.

A shares, the banking sector fluctuated and fell. As of the press time, Agricultural Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank fell by more than 4%, China Construction Bank, Bank of China, Postal Savings Bank, Bank of Communications all fell by more than 3%.

It is worth noting that yesterday, several state-owned major banks hit historical highs and then fell.

Among them, the Industrial and Commercial Bank hit a historical high of 6.57 yuan per share, and fell by 0.61%.
The Agricultural Bank hit a historical high of 5.01 yuan per share, and fell by 0.8%.
China Construction Bank hit a historical high of 8.41 yuan per share, and fell by 1.2%.
Bank of China hit a historical high of 5.2 yuan per share, and fell by 0.97%.
Bank of Communications reached a historical high of 8.06 yuan per share, closing down 1.12%.
Postal Savings Bank of China hit a historical high of 5.22 yuan per share the previous day, closing down 1.35%.

Xiamen Bank dropped over 7%, with Bank of Shanghai, Bank of Beijing, and Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank among the top decliners.

Hong Kong-listed China mainland banking stocks fell, with Bank of Communications dropping nearly 6%, China CITIC Bank Corporation dropping over 5%, Agricultural Bank of China dropping over 4%, China Construction Bank Corporation, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Postal Savings Bank of China, Bank of Chongqing, Bank of China, and China Everbright Bank falling over 3%, and CM Bank dropping over 2%.

Meanwhile, A-shares rebounded slightly, with the Shenzhen Component Index up 0.84%, the ChiNext Price Index up 0.62%, but the Shanghai Composite Index still down 0.62%, hitting a new intraday low of 2815.38.

Over 3,800 stocks in the market rose, while over 1,200 stocks declined. 43 stocks hit the daily limit up, with only 2 stocks hitting the limit down.

Group speculation?

Some investors believe that the recent surge in bank stocks has attracted a large inflow of liquidity, resulting in a weak market trend.

Yesterday, Daily Economic News published an article titled "Institutional Investors Should Not Engage in Group Speculation on the Four Major Banks", which criticized institutions for speculating on large-cap stocks such as the four major banks and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation under the guise of group speculation.

The management has always emphasized the need to strengthen patient capital. Patient capital needs to have a sense of responsibility and should be focused on industries related to national strategic layout. We hope that they will provide more support for strategic emerging industries and future industry development.
However, currently, institutional investors are engaging in group speculation on large-cap stocks such as the four major banks and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation. This behavior of institutional investors is not only a strategic issue, but also a form of speculation under the name of group speculation.

Previously, the strategy team of China Industrial Securities stated in a report that bank stocks have reached new highs. On the one hand, this is due to the pursuit of high win rate and certainty in the current market environment, and the market's pursuit of the low volatility direction represented by banks, especially the five major banks.

More importantly, the main incremental funds this year are ETFs and insurance. These two types of funds have a relatively high proportion of allocation to banks, and therefore have become important drivers of the rise of bank stocks.

Data shows that this year, the market has been weak, and the Central Huijin has increased its shareholding in ETFs. The scale of the CSI 300 ETF has increased by 474.2 billion yuan since the beginning of the year.

Banks rank first in the CSI 300 industry weighting, with over 60 billion yuan of funds flowing into the banking sector through the CSI 300 ETF.

Some banks have performed poorly.

Recently, several banks have released their half-yearly performance reports, and some of the stocks that fell sharply today have shown poor performance.

In the first half of the year, Xiamen Bank's revenue and net income both declined, with operating income of 2.892 billion yuan, a decrease of 2.21% year-on-year; net income attributable to shareholders was 1.214 billion yuan, a decrease of 15.03% year-on-year.

In the first half of the year, Bank of Shanghai achieved operating income of 26.247 billion yuan, a decrease of 0.43% year-on-year; net income attributable to shareholders was 12.969 billion yuan, an increase of 1.04% year-on-year.

In the first half of the year, Bank of Communications achieved a net profit attributable to the parent company of 45.287 billion yuan, a YoY decrease of 1.63%; achieved a net operating income of 132.55 billion yuan, a YoY decrease of 3.46%; plans to distribute a cash dividend of 0.182 yuan per share (including tax), totaling 13.516 billion yuan.

Looking ahead, Guosen Securities predicts that until the global situation becomes clear, the previous slow economic recovery, and the main source of incremental market funds from low-risk preference institutions such as insurance will not undergo substantial changes. Therefore, stocks with low performance volatility and high dividend yields are still an important direction for fund allocation, and it is recommended to continue holding state-owned major banks.