Shanghai Composite Rises 0.36% at Morning Close

The modest gain in the Shanghai Composite masks a clear divergence beneath the surface: large-cap benchmarks like the CSI 300 and STAR 50 lagged, while smaller-cap indices (CSI 500, CSI 1000) led. This suggests risk appetite is rotating toward more speculative, domestically oriented names rather than blue chips or tech-heavy boards. The ChiNext's slight decline adds to the picture of a market favoring breadth over leadership. The key question is whether this small-cap outperformance signals durable confidence in the growth outlook or merely a tactical shift within a range-bound tape. Watch whether the divergence persists into the afternoon session.