China stocks mixed as tech rebounds, banks slide

China's stock market saw AI hardware shares rebound Monday, lifting tech indexes, while banks and insurers posted steep losses, said China Global Television Network (CGTN) analyst Timothy Pope.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index edged up 0.07 percent to 3,932.70 points, while the Shenzhen Component Index gained 1.91 percent to close at 13,774.91. Tech boards led the advance, with the ChiNext Index rising 3.41 percent to 3,398.68 and the STAR Composite adding 1.90 percent to finish at 1,900.89.

"After Friday's sharp drop for AI hardware stocks, investors were buying the dip today. This rotation in and out of semiconductors and other component-maker shares continues to be the big throughline for the A-share markets. The Shanghai Composite Index was pretty flat by the close today, the Shenzhen Component [Index] added 1.9 percent and the ChiNext board rose 3.4 percent," said Pope.

Losses among major banks and insurers followed the Ministry of Finance's announcement Sunday of a 300-billion-yuan special bond issuance to shore up capital at eight central financial enterprises, a move aimed at strengthening risk resilience but underscoring ongoing pressures in the sector.

"Those tech gains were partially offset by losses for banks and insurance companies. We had three of the state lenders and five of the top insurers said yesterday they will be getting capital injections totaling 360 billion yuan, led by the Ministry of Finance. The ministry is going to be funding 300 billion [yuan] of that through special treasury bonds. Special bonds have been used to provide capital for the state-owned banks before, but not for insurers. These insurers have been hit by falling government bond yields, which are used to calculate the value of their liabilities and therefore their solvency, so they should help with that. And for the banks though, the injections don't really change the core problem they're facing, which is weak demand for credit. The three biggest drags on the Shanghai Composite [Index] today were Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and ICBC (the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China)," said Pope.

Pope said a series of key data releases, including monthly trade figures as well as consumer and producer price indexes, will guide investor decisions this week.

"For the week ahead, we are going to be looking at trade data due out tomorrow. This is probably the biggest macro release of the week given how much of the heavy-lifting exports are doing in the economy right now, and economists expect to see the trade surplus widen. And on Wednesday we've got consumer and producer price inflation numbers. They will give us a bit of sense of whether producer price inflation is staying elevated, and whether any of that pressure is feeding through into consumer prices as well," he said.

China stocks mixed as tech rebounds, banks slide

The 19th Europe-China Business and Technology Cooperation Fair concluded on Friday in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province in southwest China, attracting over 600 enterprises and institutions from more than 20 countries and generating more than 160 preliminary cooperation intentions.

Co-hosted by the China Chamber of International Commerce and the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, the fair serves as a premier platform for targeted business matchmaking between European and Chinese businesses. It aims to foster meaningful, sustainable cooperation across sectors.

During the three-day event, enterprises from China, Spain, Portugal, and other countries held nearly 400 one-on-one business matchmaking sessions across sectors such as new energy, biomedicine, agriculture and food, and artificial intelligence.

Speaking at the fair, Liu Jiannan, vice chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, emphasized the need to explore innovative cooperation models between the two sides.

"We are ready to help enterprises from both sides fully utilize platforms like the Europe-China Business and Technology Cooperation Fair to strengthen sci-tech exchanges, deepen innovative cooperation in areas such as AI, clean energy, and digital economy, and explore new models for cooperation in third-party markets," said Liu.

Business leaders at the event stressed the evolving and deeply integrated nature of Sino-European business ties.

Luigi Gambardella, president of the ChinaEU Digital Association, urged young entrepreneurs to become more involved to deepen mutual understanding.

"I hope that young people, young entrepreneurs, and young startups will start to consider co-creation. I think such kind of cooperation would be much more profound. That's because it will allow entrepreneurs [and] employees to enrich with a different culture, understanding each other," said Gambardella.

Adam Dunnett, secretary general of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, underscored the Chinese market's critical importance to Europe, calling for deeper two-way investment and trade.

"China is an important market for us. It's really, really important as a source for our supply chain. [It] really doesn't matter if [European] companies are investing in China or if Chinese companies are investing in Europe, or they're finding ways to trade with each other or to make use of each other's supply chains," said Dunnett.

Since its inception, the event has attracted over 14,000 Chinese and European enterprises. To date, it has successfully facilitated nearly 30,000 business matchmaking sessions, resulting in more than 3,000 cooperation intentions and agreements.

Europe-China fair wraps up in Chengdu with over 160 preliminary deals