Shanghai Stock Index fell by 0.42% on Friday, May 19, amid low trading volumes. The chip sector saw robust performance throughout the day while AI-related stocks collectively retreated.
On the market, memory, computational chips, beer, and photolithography sectors led the gains, while CPO, media, film and television, and shipping sectors led the declines. China's three major stock indices all opened lower, with the Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP) continuing to wobble downwards. The Shanghai 50 Index fell by more than 1% at one point, led by losses in the "mid-cap" and insurance sectors. Conversely, the ChiNext Index turned green.
The SHCOMP rebounded after probing for a bottom, while the Star 50 index was slightly stronger, rising more than 1% during the session. By the close, the SHCOMP was down 0.42%, the Shenzhen Component Index was up 0.12%, and the ChiNext Index was up 0.03%.
In terms of individual stocks, there was an equal number of gainers and losers with 2,411 stocks rising, 36 stocks hitting the upper limit, 2,408 stocks falling, and 22 stocks hitting the lower limit. The total turnover of the two markets today was 848 billion yuan.
According to the daily quota balance, northbound funds had a net outflow of 2 billion yuan as of the close of A-shares; according to the buy-sell transaction amount, northbound funds net sold 22 billion yuan.
The semiconductor sector had a strong day, with storage chips leading the gains. Robot-related stocks continued to be active with multiple stocks making strong gains. Traditional Chinese medicine stocks also rose, while AI-related stocks collectively fell, led by declines in the application and CPO sectors.
Game stocks rebounded quickly at the opening, with Century Huatong rising more than 8% at one point. However, by the close, gains had narrowed and several stocks followed the decline.
Mid-cap stocks fell throughout the day, with CITIC Metal falling more than 8% at one point. Education stocks collectively slumped, and e-commerce concept stocks also declined. The real estate sector fell amid volatility, and the media sector collectively probed lower.
Shandong Gold opened more than 4% lower but narrowed its losses to 1.05% by the close. On May 18, Shandong Gold announced that its subsidiary had discovered an additional 200 tons of gold at its Xiling gold mine in Laizhou City, Shandong Province, bringing the total amount of gold discovered to approximately 580 tons. Calculated at the domestic gold price of 448.1 yuan per gram on May 18, the potential economic value of the gold mine is more than 200 billion yuan. The Xiling gold mine is currently the largest single-body gold deposit discovered in China, and it is considered a world-class giant single-body gold mine.
