What to buy when prices go up? A review of 48 themes related to price increases

For some time, “price increases” have become one of the most important trading clues in the A-share market. A recent statistic from Industrial Securities found that since 2026, most of the top-performing concept indices are related to price hikes, and the areas of price increases are expanding from non-ferrous metals to oil and gas, chemicals, technology, and other broader sectors.

From a comprehensive market perspective, AI and new energy are the main narratives among these price-increase themes. After the rise of AI, demand for computing power has exploded, and the construction of AI data centers is booming, directly boosting the prosperity of tech hardware such as storage (DRAM, NAND, PCB, electronic fabrics, etc.). The “power shortage” bottleneck caused by AI computing power has also driven high prosperity in oil and gas, coal, and other resources. It is worth noting that resource commodities like oil, gas, and coal are also affected by the global demand recovery and geopolitical disturbances, which in turn drive related chemical product prices higher.

New energy (such as new energy vehicles and energy storage) has led to high prosperity in lithium resources and phosphate chemical chains, with topics like lithium hexafluorophosphate, lithium iron phosphate, phosphate ore, lithium ore, and lithium carbonate all strengthening. Additionally, AI and new energy are not entirely separate; for example, the relationship between AI data centers and energy storage is very close. AI and new energy also jointly support the strength of non-ferrous metals, such as copper for computing power, tin for packaging, indium phosphide for optical modules, lithium for batteries, and silver for photovoltaics.

In terms of specific focus, topics such as tungsten (China Tungsten High-tech, Xiamen Tungsten, Zhangyuan Tungsten), electronic fabrics (China Jushi, Honghe Technology, Sinoma Technology), VLCCs (COSCO Shipping Energy, China Merchants Energy Shipping, China Merchants South Oil), MLCCs (Fenghua Advanced Technology, Sanhuan Group, Guocera Materials), CCL (Shengyi Technology, Nanya New Materials, Huazheng New Materials), PCB (Shenghong Technology, Hudian Shares, Shennan Circuit) have recently attracted considerable market attention.

Industrial Securities states that “price increases,” as a synonym for “prosperity” and a core factor in the spread of market styles, are expected to become the most important main line in 2026. Full attention should be paid to the logic of “price increases” throughout the year. On one hand, price increases are the most direct and prominent signals reflecting performance improvement and upward prosperity; trading on price increases essentially means trading on prosperity. As this year’s profit growth becomes the main contradiction determining the trend and structure, once the price increase clues spread across various industries and become synonymous with “prosperity,” they will be regarded by the market as a core trading theme for the entire year. On the other hand, the upward movement of PPI (Producer Price Index) has a significant impact on market style. As an important signal of the cyclical recovery, if this year’s price rise can be validated smoothly, the market style will more easily extend to cyclical sectors.

In terms of rhythm, Industrial Securities believes that March to April is the first important window for validating and trading price increases throughout the year. As domestic price increase clues further enrich and more sectors experience price hikes, this will likely be validated, and price increases—being a key logic behind corporate profit recovery and market style expansion—may become a core theme for rotation and trading.

(Article source: Dongfang Caifu Research Center)