China’s major stock indices plunged on Monday as volatility swept across the market, with the Shanghai Composite, Shenzhen Component and ChiNext all losing more than 2% by the close. Trading was characterised by a wide dispersion of winners and losers: consumer liquor and some power-equipment names rallied, while commodities and semiconductor-related stocks bore the brunt of the sell-off.
The market-wide picture was stark. More than 4,600 stocks fell during the session, and 123 firms hit the daily limit-down threshold. Turnover on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges came to Rmb2.58 trillion, shrinking by Rmb250.8 billion from the previous trading day — a sign of thinning liquidity amid the rout.
Sector performance exposed a clear rotation. Traditional consumer names in the liquor segment showed repeated strength, with Huangtai Wine (皇台酒业) attaining its third consecutive limit-up and Jinhui Wine (金徽酒) logging its second limit-up in three days; Shuijingfang (水井坊) also touched its upper trading bound. A smaller cluster of power-grid and equipment makers — including Hancable (汉缆股份), Baiyun Electric (白云电器), Sanbian Technology (三变科技) and Baobian Electric (保变电气) — advanced and some reached limit-up levels amid the broader weakness.
By contrast, resource and deep-cyclical sectors slumped. Non-ferrous metals were particularly hard hit: names such as Sichuan Gold (四川黄金), Chifeng Gold (赤峰黄金), Tongling Nonferrous (铜陵有色) and Western Mining (西部矿业) recorded limit-downs as the whole segment experienced heavy selling. The nascent recovery narrative for domestic semiconductor equities suffered a fresh blow when memory-chip related names, notably GigaDevice (兆易创新) and Kaipu Cloud (开普云), plunged to limit-downs.
The session’s dynamics underscore lingering fragilities in domestic investor sentiment. The combination of a broad market drop, a steep clustering of limit-downs and falling turnover suggests risk aversion rose sharply in the retail-dominated parts of the market. The contrast between a handful of spirited rallies in consumer or equipment plays and a widespread decline across commodities and tech highlights how fragile any market improvement remains.
For international investors, the rout is a reminder that China’s equity markets remain vulnerable to rapid intra-day rotations and that sectoral leadership can change quickly. The sell-off will keep attention focused on whether Beijing or market regulators step in with stabilising measures, and on macro indicators — from industrial demand to export momentum — that will determine whether commodity and chip stocks can recover.