In the aviation sector, near-term fluctuations in US-Iran negotiations have kept international crude oil prices at elevated levels, which continues to pressure airline earnings, while passenger traffic and ticket prices during the summer travel season remain steady, according to a research report released by Wanlian Securities.

For the express delivery segment, online physical goods retail sales have entered a phase of steady growth, and increased regulation of the e-commerce industry is fostering rational competition, pushing the sector toward higher-quality development. The ongoing "anti-involution" policies have begun to show tangible results, with listed express delivery companies marking a definitive inflection point in earnings, industry prices rebounding, and advantages for leading players becoming more pronounced, suggesting investors should pay close attention to this space.

In terms of dividend-yielding assets, market risk appetite improved in the first half of this year, with tech and growth styles outperforming, while dividend assets lagged relatively. Entering the second half, market style is expected to rebalance, potentially benefiting dividend assets, and high-dividend stocks are likely to hold strong appeal during this shift, warranting active investor interest.

Reviewing the period from August 17 to August 21, 2026, the Shenwan primary industry transportation index rose 1.71%, while the CSI 300 index declined 1.01%, meaning the transportation sector outperformed the broader market by 2.72 percentage points. Among secondary sub-industries in transportation, only shipping and ports posted gains, rising 7.62%, while in the tertiary sub-industries, shipping, cross-border logistics, and port indices led the gains.

According to flight data from Flight Manager, during the 34th week (August 17-23), national civil aviation executed over 126,000 passenger flights, averaging approximately 18,001 daily flights, up 1.7% week-on-week and 4.8% year-on-year from 2025. Estimated passenger volume for the week reached about 18.349 million, up 1.5% week-on-week and 6.6% year-on-year from 2025. The average passenger load factor was approximately 89.1%, up 1.3 percentage points from the same period in 2025. Both flight numbers and passenger volumes grew in tandem, indicating sustained high demand for air travel. International passenger flights totaled 13,829, recovering to 88.0% of the same period in 2019, down 0.4% week-on-week. As of August 23, over 54 days of the summer travel season, the average ticket price was 861.7 yuan, up 0.5% year-on-year but down 7.6% from 2019 levels.

In the express delivery sector, from August 17 to 23, postal and express parcel collection volume reached approximately 3.79 billion items, up 1.04% week-on-week, while delivery volume was about 3.767 billion items, up 1.98% week-on-week.

For dividend-related assets, during August 17-23, national railway freight transport totaled 79.877 million tons, up 0.74% week-on-week, while national highway truck traffic reached 56.155 million vehicles, up 4.4% week-on-week. Monitored ports completed cargo throughput of 275.126 million tons, up 24.02% week-on-week, and container throughput of 7.01 million TEUs, up 13.01% week-on-week.

In shipping, as of August 21, the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) closed at 2,841.00 points, down 0.8% from August 14, while the Baltic Dirty Tanker Index (BDTI) closed at 3,004.00 points, up 9.6% from August 14. The Baltic Clean Tanker Index (BCTI) rose 4.7% from August 14, and the Shanghai Export Containerized Freight Index closed at 3,409.63 points, up 1.62% week-on-week.

Key risk factors include slower-than-expected macroeconomic growth, significant exchange rate volatility, escalating geopolitical conflicts, sharp oil price fluctuations, intensifying competition, and other unforeseen circumstances.