On April 9, both A-shares and Hong Kong stocks faced downward pressure in early trading due to persistent uncertainty in Middle East geopolitical tensions. Reports indicated complications arose on the first day of a U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement, with former U.S. President Donald Trump refusing to acknowledge Iran's proposed "10-point plan" as a foundation for talks.
A-shares opened lower, with the three major indices declining collectively at the start of the session. The ChiNext Index fell over 1% at one point. Computing hardware stocks remained active, with strength seen in areas such as copper-clad laminates, CPO (co-packaged optics), and printed circuit boards. In contrast, sectors like precious metals saw adjustments.
Hong Kong stocks trended lower after opening, with both the Hang Seng Index and the Hang Seng TECH Index falling; the latter dropped more than 1%. Technology and internet stocks declined across the board, while AI large model stocks bucked the trend and rose. KNOWLEDGE ATLAS saw gains exceeding 7%.
In bond markets, treasury futures were mostly lower. In commodities, most domestic commodity futures declined, although the containerized freight index rose over 3%. Significant declines were seen in crude oil, fuel oil, and ethylene glycol.
**Key Market Movements as of Writing:**
A-Shares: The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.56%, the Shenzhen Component Index declined 0.27%, and the ChiNext Index dropped 0.69%.
Hong Kong Stocks: The Hang Seng Index decreased by 0.49%, while the Hang Seng TECH Index fell 0.95%.
Bond Markets: Most treasury futures contracts were down. The 30-year main contract rose 0.14%, while the 10-year, 5-year, and 2-year main contracts each fell 0.02%.
Commodities: Most domestic commodity futures were lower. The containerized freight index rose over 3%. Rapeseed and palladium each gained 1%. Increases were also seen in eggs, industrial silicon, soybean meal, pulp, stainless steel, Shanghai silver, and Shanghai copper and nickel. Declines were recorded in rubber, rebar, Shanghai gold, alumina, platinum, Shanghai tin, and Shanghai aluminum. Fuel oil, coking coal, iron ore, caustic soda, asphalt, and manganese silicon fell over 1%. Lithium carbonate and polysilicon dropped more than 2%. Crude oil, methanol, and ethylene glycol declined over 4%.
**09:42** The CPO concept strengthened again in early trading. Dongshan Precision hit the daily limit up. Changxin Bochuang rose over 5%, continuing to set new historical highs. Other gainers included Liante Technology, Huamao Technology, Dekeli, and Cambridge Technology.
This movement followed an official announcement from Anthropic regarding new agreements signed with Google and Broadcom. Anthropic is set to acquire approximately 3.5 gigawatts of next-generation TPU computing power to meet robust market demand.
**09:35** Innovative drug stocks were active against the broader market trend. Yibai Pharmaceutical achieved its third daily limit up in six sessions. Menova Pharmaceutical hit the daily limit up. Other advancing stocks included Jincheng Pharmaceutical, Jinling Pharmaceutical, Luoxin Pharmaceutical, and Realcan Pharmaceutical.
This activity comes ahead of the 2026 AACR annual meeting scheduled for April 17, where over 100 Chinese pharmaceutical companies will present nearly 400 research findings. These will cover hot areas like ADCs, bispecific antibodies, and radiopharmaceuticals, as well as key targets such as CDH17 and Claudin18.2. The subsequent ASCO conference in May is expected to continue this cycle of data-driven catalysts.
**09:31** The ChiNext Index fell more than 1%. The Shanghai Composite Index declined 0.68%, and the Shenzhen Component Index dropped 0.93%. Sectors like non-ferrous metals, airport shipping, and gaming led the declines. Nearly 4,800 stocks fell across the Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing exchanges.
**09:26** The Shanghai Composite Index opened 0.69% lower, while the ChiNext Index opened down 0.94%. Themes such as tax refunds for departures, PCBs, gold, high-speed copper connections, memory, semiconductors, AI applications, and computing power leasing saw pullbacks. Partial strength was observed in lithium mining and oil and gas sectors.
**09:21** The Hang Seng Index opened 0.53% lower, and the Hang Seng TECH Index opened down 1.11%. Technology and internet stocks declined across the board, with Kuaishou, Huahong Semiconductor, Kingdee International Software Group, and Alibaba each falling over 2%.
Comments