China's benchmark stock indices made strong gains on Monday, the first trading day in 2026, but the shares of oil companies experienced sell-offs as investors became increasingly worried about the situation in Venezuela, according to a market analyst.
Chinese stocks closed higher on Monday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 1.38 percent to 4,023.42 points.
The Shenzhen Component Index closed 2.24 percent higher at 13,828.63 points.
Timothy Pope, a market analyst for China Global Television Network (CGTN), recapped the stock markets' performance.
"It was a cracker of a start to the year for the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets. We had the Shanghai Composite Index up 1.4 percent to close comfortably above 4,000 points for the first time since mid-November. We had the Shenzhen Component up 2.3 percent, and the ChiNext board adding more than 2.8 percent. If you look at where the gains came from, it was the new growth sectors -- primarily chips and AI. There was a sub-index tracking semiconductor rising 5.6 percent to a more than three-month high, and another one covering AI, which gained 3.2 percent. In Shenzhen we also saw some strong gains for a lot of biomedical companies. Now these were the big growth engines for the market in 2025 and it seems they're likely to remain so in 2026," he said.
"There were of course downsides today. Investors were dumping shares in Chinese oil companies -- the ones with investments in Venezuela at least. This weekend's dramatic events -- the capture of the country's President Nicolas Maduro -- raises all sorts of questions, with U.S. President [Donald] Trump saying America is going to run Venezuela temporarily and bring in those U.S. oil companies to sort out the country's oil production. One of those questions is where that leaves Chinese firms with billions already invested in Venezuela. That's true for mining as well as oil, and the same question applies to billions of dollars in development loans from China to Venezuela. So, with all that going on, it's not surprising PetroChina shares were the biggest drag on the Shanghai Composite Index today, down 3.3 percent, CNOOC shares were down 3.8 percent, and Sinopec shed 1.5 percent," he said.
Chinese shares surge in 2026 opening session with Venezuela situation spurring oil stock sell-offs
