On Tuesday (23rd), the A-share market saw a general decline with all major indexes dropping significantly. In contrast, the Taiwan stock market showed a strong surge, achieving the second largest point increase in its history.
On July 23, the three major A-share stock indexes opened lower and continued to trend downwards. By the close of trading, the Shanghai Composite Index fell by 1.65% to 2915.37 points, the Shenzhen Component Index dropped by 2.97% to 8606.58 points, the ChiNext Index decreased by 3.04% to 1671.44 points, and the Sci-Tech 50 Index plunged by 4.11% to 721.11 points.
According to Wind statistics, a total of 567 stocks rose while 4673 stocks fell on the two main exchanges and the Nasdaq-style ChiNext board, with 16 stocks hitting the limit down and 117 remaining unchanged.
On the market, nearly all sectors were in the red except for the banking sector which saw gains. Non-ferrous metals led the declines, with a drop of over 4%. The electronics, beauty care, and food and beverage sectors were among the top decliners.
The combined trading volume of the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets amounted to 662.2 billion yuan, roughly in line with the previous day.
The A-share market’s sharp decline quickly became a hot topic on Weibo and Baidu once again.
A fund blogger and Weibo influencer, “Tete Financial Management,” remarked: “Today’s plunge doesn’t seem like a regular decline, it feels more like a stock disaster where everything is down without any warning signs. Besides feeling cold-hearted, I’m also angry. What’s happening to the A-share market?”
The Director of Asia Vision Technologies R&D and financial blogger “Storm Learning Chen Jing” commented: “Just when we finally saw some gains, the market tumbles again. If you can’t trade, just stay away. Those who can trade should at least be able to beat the index. With continued buying from government-backed funds, the four major banks hit historical highs, driving up the stock indexes. However, as existing funds play off each other, the market once again tumbles. Simply put, it’s due to lack of market confidence and no new money flowing in.”
In Hong Kong, the two main indexes fluctuated weaker throughout the day. By the close of trading, the Hang Seng Index fell by 0.94% to 17469.36 points, while the Hang Seng Technology Index dropped by 1.82% to 3545.09 points. Individual stocks saw China Resources Semiconductor down by around 7%, Meituan and BYD Electronics down by nearly 5%, Nongfu Spring and SMIC International down by over 3%; while China Unicom rose by over 2%, ICBC, Bank of China, and Construction Bank all rose by more than 1%.
On the same day, most major stock markets in the Asia-Pacific region saw gains. The KOSPI Index in South Korea closed at 2774.29 points, up by 0.39%; the Nikkei 225 Index in Japan closed at 39594.39 points, down by 0.01%.
Notably, the Taiwan stock market surged significantly. The three major weighted stocks, TSMC, Hon Hai, and MediaTek, all surged by over 4%, driving the Taiwan stock market to soar by 614.85 points, marking the second largest increase in its history, closing at 22871.84 points.