China's A-share market extended its weak tone on the morning of August 21, with all four major indices opening lower and nearly 4,000 stocks trading down. The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.32%, the Shenzhen Component Index declined 0.27%, the ChiNext Index slipped 0.01% and the STAR Composite Index dropped 0.52%. Pharmaceutical and biotech stocks were the main drag, led by sharp declines in contract research organization (CRO) and innovative-drug shares after earlier gains. Other previously strong themes, including Unitree Robotics, seed companies, rare-earth permanent magnets, lithography machines and artificial-intelligence applications, also weakened as competition among existing funds intensified. Gold and digital-currency shares rose, supported by geopolitical uncertainty, elevated overseas interest rates and overseas-market sentiment. Newly listed N Xinsheng (603808.SS) opened more than 95% higher. Everbright Securities expects the market to remain in a bottoming-out consolidation phase in the near term, with a meaningful recovery in sentiment dependent on easing external risks and significantly higher trading volumes across both exchanges.