Editor’s Note
Chinese equities retreated on Monday, with all three major indices closing lower amid a significant drop in trading volume. The broad decline saw over 3,700 stocks fall, reflecting a cautious market sentiment.
On February 5, the three major A-share indices collectively corrected. At the close, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.64% to 4,075.92 points; the Shenzhen Component Index dropped 1.44% to 13,952.71 points; and the ChiNext Index declined 1.55% to 3,260.28 points. The total market turnover was only 2,194.3 billion yuan, a decrease of 309 billion yuan from the previous day. Stocks fell in tandem with the indices, with over 3,700 stocks declining across the market and more than 1,600 stocks rising.
In today’s market, the precious metals sector fell significantly, with both silver and gold prices declining. Silver-related stocks like Baiyin Nonferrous and Hunan Silver hit the daily limit down, while Hunan Gold and Sichuan Gold approached the limit down. During A-share trading hours, the London silver price fell by over 14% intraday, retreating from a high of $90 per ounce to $74 per ounce. Although gold briefly fell below the $4,900 per ounce mark, its overall decline was much milder than silver’s.
Technology stocks also fell collectively, with sectors like photovoltaics, semiconductor chips, and power grid equipment leading the declines. This is related to the drop in US tech stocks. Recent events such as Oracle’s layoffs and OpenAI’s financing have raised market concerns about the prospects of technology fields like artificial intelligence, directly leading to weakness in tech stocks. This sentiment spread to the A-share market, causing tech stocks to fall. Even news like “SpaceX’s application for 1 million satellites accepted” has temporarily failed to stir market enthusiasm.
With the market’s main trend still unclear, many investors have turned their attention to the consumer sector. As the 2026 Spring Festival approaches, sectors like food and beverage, retail, and film and cinema are naturally heating up due to the holiday cycle. Coupled with a risk-averse and stability-seeking mentality, the consumer sector today directly posted gains against the overall market trend. In terms of industry fund flows, by the close, food and beverage, banking, and commercial retail ranked high in net inflows, with food and beverage seeing a net inflow of 1.382 billion yuan. The food and beverage sector performed notably well, with Haixin Foods and Anji Foods hitting the daily limit up, and stocks like Hongmian Co., Ltd., Tianwei Foodstuff, and Qianhe Flavoring also rising.
Against the backdrop of the falling indices, the overall performance of the Sichuan sector was flat, with only Maoye Commercial and Fulin Transportation hitting the daily limit up, leading the commercial retail and railway/road sectors respectively.
Today, the Shanghai Composite Index opened low and moved lower, hovering below the horizontal line throughout the session. This has made many investors hesitant. Currently, market liquidity is cautious, the demand for profit-taking before the holiday persists, and trading volume has yet to expand effectively.