SINOTRANS (00598) shares rose nearly 4%, up 3.44% to HK$4.805 as of press time, with a turnover of HK$34.3022 million.

On the news front, SINOTRANS recently released its third-quarter results. Research from CICC noted that the company's revenue for the first three quarters was RMB 71.987 billion, down 4.07% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders was RMB 2.676 billion, down 0.12% year-on-year. Among this, third-quarter revenue was RMB 25.535 billion, up 4.16% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders was RMB 951 million, up 29.9% year-on-year.

CICC believes that the third-quarter results exceeded both its own and market expectations, with the high profit growth mainly driven by strong profit growth at DHL-Sinotrans and the company's continued optimization of its business structure.

Notably, since 2026, the company has dynamically optimized its operations in response to market conditions, proactively reducing or exiting low-efficiency businesses, achieving gross margin improvement for three consecutive quarters on a year-on-year basis. Third-quarter gross margin rose 1.2 percentage points year-on-year to 6.0%.

CICC further noted that looking ahead to the fourth quarter, air and sea freight are in a relatively strong prosperity range; DHL-Sinotrans may continue its high growth. Air freight is entering its traditional peak season in the fourth quarter, with high-tech product trade supporting demand at elevated levels. The TAC Shanghai air freight rate index rose 20% year-on-year in the first three weeks of October. In container shipping, the SCFI European route and US route indices have averaged year-on-year increases of 91% and 268% respectively from October to date, remaining in a relatively strong prosperity range. Regarding DHL-Sinotrans, combined with DHL raising its 2026 profit guidance, it is expected that DHL-Sinotrans may still contribute high investment income growth in the fourth quarter of 2026.