China A-shares rebound by close after early selloff, with chips still weak

China’s A-share market staged a sharp intraday reversal on July 29, with the three main indexes closing higher after early weakness as consumer and financial stocks led a late rebound. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4%, the Shenzhen Component Index gained 1.1%, and the ChiNext Index climbed 1.55%. The STAR Composite Index, which tracks technology shares, briefly fell 3.81% in morning trade, highlighting the intensity of the rotation out of previously strong hard-tech names. More than 4,200 stocks finished higher, while combined turnover on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges reached about 2.3 trillion yuan, up 270.8 billion yuan from the prior session. Food and beverage and retail shares were among the strongest gainers, with several names hitting daily limits, and financial stocks turned sharply higher in the afternoon as Chinalin Securities surged to limit up. Semiconductor and computing-power hardware shares remained the main weak spots, while brain-computer interface stocks also corrected sharply. Parts of technology still saw selective buying, including on-device AI, power grid equipment and solid-state battery stocks, pointing to a broader style rotation rather than a uniform retreat from risk assets.