Market regulators are intensifying efforts to combat unfair competition and enhance oversight mechanisms. The State Administration for Market Regulation announced it has established a fair competition review system, with anti-monopoly enforcement set to focus more sharply on sectors such as pharmaceutical raw materials, public utilities, and the platform economy. By the end of August, authorities had investigated 29,000 cases involving low-quality, low-price violations as part of a special campaign against "involutionary" competition, employing price enforcement, quality supervision, and standard-setting to curb malicious pricing and disorderly market behavior.
The People's Bank of China is deploying a flexible mix of tools to ensure smooth liquidity conditions across the month-end and quarter-end periods. With 272 billion yuan in 7-day reverse repurchase agreements maturing this week, experts note that the central bank's liquidity injections have become more precise and sufficient to offset major disturbances, keeping market interest rates stable.
The power battery recycling industry is facing significant hurdles as the volume of retired batteries approaches one million tons. A key pain point, according to industry executives, is that battery manufacturers and automakers prioritize vehicle safety in cell design without considering ease of disassembly. The sector remains fragmented, with information silos across the industrial chain that will take time to address.
On the New Third Board, pharmaceutical manufacturing companies are showing improving profitability with robust R&D investment. Among over 170 listed pharmaceutical firms, nearly half are on the innovation layer. First-half 2026 data reveals revenue growth of 0.22% year-on-year, while net profit attributable to parent companies surged 16.75%, with nearly 70% of companies turning a profit. R&D intensity reached 7.17%, exceeding the market average by 3.84 percentage points, and financing activities accelerated significantly, with cash received from investment in the pharma manufacturing sector jumping 733.55% to 1.233 billion yuan.
International investors are increasingly turning to Chinese assets as a "second battlefield" in the AI era amid crowded global AI trades. Investment banks including Barclays and UBS have observed rising client demand for bullish options and swap contracts linked to Chinese stock indices. Meanwhile, overseas issuers have been launching ETFs this year focused on Chinese hard-tech sectors such as semiconductors and humanoid robots.
Regulators are vowing to guide businesses toward quality improvement while cracking down on vicious competition. At a State Council Information Office press conference, the market regulator outlined plans for the 15th Five-Year Plan period, emphasizing a balance between regulation and development, with proactive governance, full-chain supervision, and technology-driven oversight to foster a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment.
A-share markets are expected to maintain a structural rebound window, with third-quarter earnings reports potentially serving as the next key catalyst. Following the US Federal Reserve's anticipated 25-basis-point rate hike, global markets have moved past the immediate uncertainty, with tech stocks leading gains. Brokerage strategy reports suggest that macro news disturbances are fading, allowing industry pricing to resume, and tech heavyweights with solid earnings support may see catch-up gains.
Investment institutions are reassessing asset allocation after the Fed's rate increase. With the federal funds rate target range raised to 3.75%-4%, some analysts view this as a policy calibration rather than the start of a new hiking cycle, though early-stage market volatility risks remain. Institutions are watching for short-term US equity pullback risks while expecting US Treasury markets to stay stable, and risk appetite for Chinese assets may improve.
China is accelerating the improvement of its comprehensive supervision system for ultra-large markets. The market regulator aims to establish a unified, standardized, and efficient market access and exit system by 2030, enhance anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition enforcement, advance quality-focused competition, and cultivate internationally competitive biomedical industry clusters. Plans also include revising the E-Commerce Law and strengthening safety supervision across food, drugs, industrial products, and special equipment.
Domestic memory chips are achieving a high-end breakthrough as ChangXin Memory Technologies announced mass production of its fifth-generation DRAM technology platform at the World Manufacturing Convention. The G5 platform boosts bare die output per wafer by at least 50% compared to the previous generation, and the company also unveiled new large-capacity LPDDR5X products based on this platform.
International rating agency S&P has upgraded its outlook on China's securities industry, raising the anchor rating for Chinese securities firms from "bb" to "bb+" amid economic resilience and positive industry development. Specific upgrades include GF Securities moving from "BBB/Stable/A-2" to "BBB+/Stable/A-2", while CITIC Securities, Guotai Haitong, and China Galaxy Securities saw their outlooks revised from stable to positive.
The newly revised Housing Provident Fund Management Regulations took effect on September 20, expanding coverage and usage scenarios. Several cities including Xi'an, Huizhou, Yueyang, Kunming, Tai'an, Yulin, and Bengbu issued new policies in the days leading up to implementation, with many incorporating renovation extraction and property fee extraction into provident fund usage, and some extending support to housing renovation and upgrading projects.
Prices of strategic minor metals are rising steadily amid tight supply and surging demand driven by AI computing infrastructure construction. Meanwhile, the first national standard for the perovskite photovoltaic sector was released by the State Administration for Market Regulation, covering current-voltage characteristic measurement methods for perovskite solar cells and modules, with implementation scheduled for 2027.
Multiple regions are issuing 15th Five-Year Plan special plans with a strong focus on AI initiatives. Beijing's digital economy development plan emphasizes exploring new model architectures, swarm intelligence, and brain-inspired intelligence to seize technological high ground, while Hubei's digital development plan stresses deep integration of AI with the real economy. Guangxi's financial industry plan calls for mutual empowerment between AI and finance.
The Loan Prime Rate remained unchanged for the 16th consecutive month, with the central bank keeping the 1-year LPR at 3.0% and the 5-year-plus LPR at 3.5% as of September 20, 2026, maintaining consistency with previous values.