A-Share Seesaw: Tech Rebounds, Banks Lead Losses as Big Six Shed 260 Billion Yuan
On August 4, China's A-share market saw a seesaw pattern as the three major indices rose, with the AI hardware sector rebounding strongly while banks fell sharply. The Shanghai Composite added 0.33%, the Shenzhen Component Index gained 3.25%, and the ChiNext surged 5.64%. The banking sector dropped 2.75%, leading decliners, with the six largest state-owned banks losing a combined 260 billion yuan in market value, including about 230 billion yuan from the big four.
On August 4, the A-share market exhibited a seesaw effect as the three major indices advanced collectively. The Shanghai Composite Index closed up 0.33%, the Shenzhen Component Index rose 3.25%, the ChiNext Index gained 5.64%, and the STAR 50 Index added 4.09%. The AI hardware sector launched a full-scale rebound, with components, CPO, electronic chemicals, CRO concepts, and PCB concepts leading the gains, while banking and baijiu sectors fell sharply. Communications and electronics sectors rose 9.41% and 5.73% respectively, leading among 31 Shenwan primary industries, while the banking sector fell 2.75%, the steepest decline.
On the same day, the four major banks—Agricultural Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, and China Construction Bank—each fell more than 3%, with Agricultural Bank down 4.06%, ICBC down 3.77%, Bank of China down 3.48%, and CCB down 3.35%. Bank of Communications and Postal Savings Bank of China dropped 2.9% and 2.33%, respectively. By the close, the combined market value of the six largest state-owned banks stood at approximately 10.01 trillion yuan, down 260 billion yuan from the previous trading day's 10.27 trillion yuan. Among them, the combined A-share market value was 6.66 trillion yuan, down 250 billion yuan from the prior session. The big four banks alone saw their total market value shrink by about 230 billion yuan in a single day.
Since the start of July, banking stocks had experienced a rebound. The CSI Bank Index rose from a low of 6,602.05 points in early July to 7,517.47 points at the end of the month, a gain of nearly 14%. As of the close on August 3, the CSI Bank Index had risen 12.35% since the second half of the year began, outperforming the broader market by nearly 20 percentage points. In the first half of the year, except for China Construction Bank, which gained 3.77%, the other five state-owned banks all declined, with Agricultural Bank of China falling more than 19%. From July through the August 3 close, Bank of Communications, Agricultural Bank, ICBC, and CCB all posted double-digit gains, with Bank of Communications leading at 15.7%.