A rope that has not yet been mass-produced has driven the stock price to double.

"Good news: the losses are getting smaller; bad news: the principal is also shrinking." This joke has become a true portrayal of A-share investors over the past month.

On October 30, the A-share market closed with a negative candlestick for the month, with more than 4,500 individual stocks posting negative monthly lines, and the median rise and fall of individual stocks fell by more than 12%. However, there was an exception in the bleak market, which was Daye Co., Ltd. — in only 11 trading days from October 16 to 30, its stock price surged from 9.01 yuan to 19.52 yuan, with a growth rate as high as 116.65%.

In sharp contrast to the stock price is the company's performance. Financial reports show that in the first half of 2026, Daye Co., Ltd. achieved an operating revenue of 2.463 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2.31%; the net profit attributable to shareholders was -63.9914 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 250.93%.

Under performance pressure, the stock price soared against the trend. This rise decoupled from fundamentals stemmed from a development agreement signed by its subsidiary in 2025 on "humanoid robot tendon rope materials", and the market labeled Daye Co., Ltd. as a "humanoid robot concept stock".

Coinciding with the overall strengthening of the humanoid robot sector in mid-October, although the company has clearly stated that "the tendon rope business has not been mass-produced and has not generated substantial revenue", the market still speculated on it regardless. As a result, a traditional manufacturing enterprise producing automobile tire bead wires has become one of the most "crazy" stocks in the A-share market in October.

11 Trading Days, Stock Price Doubled

Daye Co., Ltd. is by no means a negligible company. Headquartered in Weifang, Shandong Province, it was listed on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2017 and is a world-leading manufacturer of tire bead wires.

According to public data, in 2025, Daye Co., Ltd. had a domestic market share of 36.23% in the tire bead wire sector, with customers covering major global tire manufacturers such as Michelin, Bridgestone, Goodyear, Zhongce Rubber, and Linglong Tire.

Although it is a veritable "hidden champion", in the tire industry chain, tire bead wire is a typical "tough business": downstream tire manufacturers are in a strong position, raw material prices fluctuate, and gross profit margin is squeezed from both sides. For this reason, the company's performance has been mediocre, and its net profit attributable to shareholders in the first half of this year even turned from profit to loss. Reflected in the secondary market, its stock price remained at around 9 yuan per share from August to September, with sluggish trading.

The turning point came on October 16. On that day, the company's stock price suddenly hit the 10% limit up, closing at 9.91 yuan per share, and the first limit up was thus born. After that, the limit up seemed to be on a continuous mode: from October 19 to 23, it gained 5 consecutive limit ups in 5 trading days, with a market value reaching 5.45 billion yuan.

In response to the short-term abnormal fluctuation of the company's stock price, the exchange could not sit still. On October 22, the Shanghai Stock Exchange issued a regulatory work letter to Daye Co., Ltd. The company then issued three consecutive announcements on abnormal stock trading fluctuations and risk warnings on the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th, with increasingly severe wording: "The recent turnover rate has risen sharply, there is a big divergence between long and short funds, and there is a risk of sharp short-term correction", "Market sentiment may be overheated, and there is irrational speculation".

However, these warnings failed to stop the stock price. On October 26, the company's stock price hit the limit up again during the session, reaching a maximum of 17.56 yuan. Although it failed to close at the limit up at the end of the day, it still closed up by more than 8 percentage points. In the following four days, against the backdrop of thousands of stocks falling, Daye Co., Ltd. still moved higher against the trend.

As of the close of trading on October 30, the company's stock price closed at 19.52 yuan per share, with a cumulative increase of 116.65% in 11 trading days, and its market value doubled to 6.671 billion yuan.

The Carnival Triggered by a "Tendon Rope"

Behind the sharp rise of Daye Co., Ltd.'s stock price, it is not that its main business has suddenly ushered in a turning point, but that the market has applied the narrative of humanoid robots to this leading tire bead wire manufacturer.

Those familiar with the industry know that dexterous hands have become one of the most concerned components of current humanoid robots. For dexterous hands to complete fine movements such as grasping, pinching, twisting and rotating, the transmission scheme is the key. At present, there are three mainstream routes in the market: link transmission, gear transmission and tendon rope transmission. The sharp rise of Daye Co., Ltd. this time is exactly driven by the two words "tendon rope".

Back in November 2024, Daye Co., Ltd. invested 3 million yuan to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary "Shandong Daye Robot Technology", whose business covers R&D and sales of intelligent robots, sales of artificial intelligence hardware, and manufacturing of industrial robots. In April of the following year, this company signed a development service agreement with Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, focusing on R&D cooperation on "humanoid robot tendon rope materials and perception functions". In October 2026, the "humanoid robot" sector exploded strongly as a whole. The market dug out this old agreement and regarded it as "iron evidence" that Daye Co., Ltd. was among the related concept stocks, and a large amount of capital poured in subsequently.

However, it is interesting that based on the available information, Daye Co., Ltd.'s "tendon rope" is not enough to support this skyrocketing market trend.

According to the company's financial report, in the first half of 2026, the steel cord, tire bead wire and rubber hose wire businesses contributed operating revenues of 1.189 billion yuan, 1.038 billion yuan and 176 million yuan respectively. Calculated based on the total operating revenue of 2.463 billion yuan, the three businesses together account for as high as 97.56%, and the word "tendon rope" does not even appear in the financial report.

(Image source: Semi-annual report of Daye Co., Ltd.)

In addition, the company has repeatedly emphasized in its recently released announcements: "Our existing main business still focuses on the R&D, production and sales of tire bead wires, steel cords and rubber hose wires. The much-concerned robot tendon rope products are currently only in the stage of customer sample delivery and verification, mass production has not been realized, and no substantial revenue has been generated."

But the A-share market is sometimes so magical — even with the financial report in front of everyone, capital still chooses to believe in the story.

It is worth mentioning that the gap between the story and reality is being amplified by the latest financial report. On the afternoon of October 30, Daye Co., Ltd. released its third quarterly report: the company's operating revenue was 1.29 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.7%, but the net profit attributable to shareholders expanded from a loss of 19.02 million yuan in the same period of last year to a loss of 52.21 million yuan, and the non-recurring profit and loss deducted net profit attributable to shareholders also expanded from a loss of 25.42 million yuan to a loss of 59.66 million yuan.

The release of this third quarterly report undoubtedly adds more uncertainty to the trend of the company's stock price in the next trading day.

Two Extremely Different Situations

Of course, Daye Co., Ltd. is just a microcosm of this round of structural market of the robot sector in the A-share market. Since the market officially started on October 16, many companies have ushered in a sharp rise.

Xiangyang Bearing is another stock that doubled in the same period. On October 30, the company's stock price touched a maximum of 19.86 yuan per share during the session, up 99.8% from the closing price of 9.94 yuan per share on the 15th. In addition, companies such as Unitree Robotics, Fantu Digital Creation, Anpel, and Hithink RoyalFlush Information Network saw their increases exceed 50% in the same period.

In sharp contrast to the secondary market, the attitude of the primary market towards embodied intelligence is significantly calmer at present, and discussions about "investors no longer look at embodied intelligence" have begun to frequently appear in media reports.

I have heard many similar arguments in recent exchanges. For example, an early-stage VC investor once clearly stated: "Before there is a disruptive innovative project similar to DeepSeek in the market, I will no longer invest in embodied intelligence."

However, the narrowing of the window does not mean that the door is completely closed. Investor B said that even if the industry enters an adjustment period, the certainty of embodied intelligence as a long-term direction is still beyond doubt, but he will focus on the more upstream core component links. In his view: "As long as the industry is moving forward, no matter which ontology manufacturer wins in the end, components are rigid demands."

In addition, he mentioned a key point: the more upstream a company is, the wider its application scope, and its fundamental business will not be severely affected by the ebb of a single track.

Taking tactile sensors as an example, such core components not only serve humanoid robots, but can also be used in scenarios such as consumer electronics, medical equipment, and automotive electronics. "Some companies with mature technologies already have stable customer groups and revenue sources, which also provide a certain financial safety cushion for investors."

Many people share the same idea. Ai Min, Chairman of Dami Venture Capital, mentioned in an interview with the media that while institutions are slowing down the investment pace in the embodied intelligence track, they are focusing on deploying "shovel-selling" infrastructure such as databases and embodied brains; Wu Shichun also publicly stated recently that Plum Ventures will give priority to investing in upstream core components of embodied intelligence.

To a certain extent, the skyrocketing stock price of Daye Co., Ltd. is also an emotional projection of capital on the "upstream narrative" of the robot industry chain. However, different from the secondary market where "concept speculation" can drive a doubling market in a short period of time, the primary market is obviously much more complex — it not only looks at short-term popularity, but also judges whether the company will still be on the industry chain many years later.

This article is from the WeChat official account "ChinaVenture", author: Wang Manhua, editor: Wang Qingwu, published with authorization from 36Kr.