The Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) and China Securities Index Co., Ltd. (CSI) have officially announced the arrangements for the release of the SSE STAR Chip Index (the “STAR Chip Index” for short). With liquidity-based screening, a total of no more than 50 securities of the listed companies with large market capitalization, to be selected as the constituents of the STAR Chip Index, will cover the fields such as semiconductor materials and equipment, chip design, chip manufacturing, and chip packaging and testing. Among the top 5 stocks with the largest weights are Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, Montage Technology Co., Ltd., Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. China, Amlogic (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. and National Silicon Industry Group Co., Ltd., with the total weight at 44%.
As the core of the information technology industry and a strategic, basic and leading industry that supports economic and social development and safeguards national security, the integrated circuit industry represents an important development direction set by multiple national strategic plans. It also plays a significant role in achieving scientific and technological self-reliance and self-improvement and fostering the transformation to high-quality economic development. With the ongoing domestic replacement and the industry’s growing capacity for innovation and international competitiveness, the semiconductor industry at large will usher in fresh opportunities for development. Chips are the main carrier of integrated circuits. As one of the key areas supported by the SSE STAR Market, the chip-related industries have seen 57 technologically innovative companies listed on the board, accounting for half of the A-share companies in the same category. Of the top 10 companies in terms of total market capitalization on the SSE STAR Market, 4 companies are in the chip industry. Gathered by the SSE STAR Market, a group of leading companies in the chip industry have achieved breakthroughs in key technologies. Highly recognized by the market, these companies cover design, manufacturing, materials, equipment, packaging and testing and other parts of the industrial chain, highlighting the effect of industrial agglomeration and forming a development pattern with full industrial functions. The chip-related companies on the SSE STAR Market, characterized by outstanding growth, recorded year-on-year increases of 181% and 43% in net profit and operating income respectively according to their 2021 annual reports, with all the companies posting positive growths in operating income; the R&D investment continued to expand, with the annual R&D investment amounting to RMB 17.66 billion, a year-on-year increase of 15.4%. Meanwhile, the R&D investment, accounting for 15.1% of the operating income, indicates that the companies rank high among the A-share companies in the same industry in terms of the efforts in R&D, and provide strong support for the high-quality development of the industrial chain.
As another major index representing the STAR Market following the STAR 50 Index, the STAR Next Generation IT Index and the STAR Biology and Medicine Index, the STAR Chip Index will further diversify the investors’ targets of observation and investment. Going forward, the SSE will continue to improve the index system of the STAR Market, and promote the concepts of value investment, long-term investment and rational investment through index investing.
Attachment: Announcement on the Release of the SSE STAR Chip Index