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China’s stock market sees drop in new A-share, margin-trading accounts amid tech sell-off

The number of new accounts opened on the Shanghai Stock Exchange was down 7 per cent month on month

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An electronic board displays stock index information in Beijing. Photo: Reuters
Julie Zhang
New account openings and leveraged trading in mainland China’s stock market slowed in July, as a global artificial intelligence-linked sell-off dented investor appetite following a positive first half of the year for technology shares.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange opened 2.66 million new A-share accounts in July, down 7 per cent from June, according to exchange data. That brought the cumulative tally for the January-to-July period to 22.82 million new accounts.

Margin trading activity painted a similar picture. China Securities Data, a unit of the central securities depository for mainland China’s stock exchanges, said 139,400 new margin-trading accounts were opened market-wide in July, down 22.12 per cent from June.

The pullback coincided with a rout in mainland technology shares in July. The CSI 300 Index, which tracks the 300 largest and most liquid stocks listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges, dropped about 13 per cent in July, while the Shanghai Composite Index fell about 5 per cent. Electronic chemicals, semiconductors and optical-module makers bore the brunt of the decline.

The retreat mirrored a broad pullback in the artificial intelligence trade across Asia, as investors questioned the need for massive capital expenditures on data centres and cloud-service infrastructure. South Korea’s tech-heavy Kospi index plunged more than 18 per cent in July.

Hong Kong-listed chipmakers have also seen volatility. In Hong Kong, stock prices of GigaDevice Semiconductor tumbled about 45 per cent, while Montage Technology dropped more than 26 per cent.

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