The Shanghai Composite Index once again falls below 3,900 points, with institutions stating: Short-term volatility does not change the pattern of a slow bull and long-term bull market.

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On April 3, all three major A-share indices fell across the board. By the close, the Shanghai Composite Index was down 1.00% to 3,880.10 points; the Shenzhen Component Index fell 0.99% to 13,352.90 points; and the ChiNext Index declined 0.73% to 3,149.60 points. Total trading value across the Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing markets was only 16,691 billion yuan, down 1,889 billion yuan from the previous day.

In terms of market performance, the market’s areas of focus were somewhat mixed, and more than 4,700 stocks across the entire market fell.

From the sector perspective, the computing power hardware concept rose against the trend. Huiyuan Communications posted two consecutive limit-ups. Nengtianshan notched 7 limit-ups in 9 days. DekeLi hit a 20cm limit-up. The computing power leasing concept rose in parts, with YunSai ZhiLian, Sittech, and ZhiZhen Technology all hitting limit-ups. The robotics concept performed actively, with Huari Shares and Rongtai Shares hitting limit-ups. The industrial gases concept fluctuated higher, with China Shipbuilding Special Gas hitting a 20cm limit-up.

On the downside, the power sector weakened. Shenzhen Nan’dian A, Mindong Electric Power, and Leshan Electric Power all hit the daily limit-down. The coal sector slid, with Yunmei Energy hitting the limit-down; Shaanxi Black Cat, Zhengzhou Coal and Power, and Antai Group all plunged.

On the funding side, the People’s Bank of China announced that on April 3, it conducted 10 billion yuan of 7-day reverse repo operations via a fixed-rate, quantity-based bidding method, fully meeting the needs of primary dealers. The operation interest rate was 1.4%. The bidding amount was 10 billion yuan, and the winning amount was 10 billion yuan. Wind data shows that 1,462 billion yuan in reverse repos matured that day; based on this, the net daily reverse repo withdrawal was 1,452 billion yuan.

Latest data from the Shanghai Stock Exchange shows that in March this year, the number of new accounts for Shanghai A-shares exceeded 4.6014 million, up 82.38% month-over-month and up 50.10% year-over-year. In the first quarter, the cumulative number of new accounts for Shanghai A-shares reached 12.0402 million, up 61.15% year-over-year.

The number of new accounts in January was only second to the 6.85 million opened in October 2024, the highest level in the past year; and the number of accounts opened in March also surpassed the single-month figures of any month in 2025, indicating that the market’s appeal is continuing to strengthen.

“Recently, the A-share market has seen a relatively large-scale adjustment. Once external shocks are reduced, more proactive domestic macro policies will gradually be implemented, and the central bank will also pursue a moderately accommodative monetary policy. This means the market will return to its prior pace and continue to deliver a slow bull market turning into a long-term bull market.” Yang Delong, Chief Economist at Qianhai Open-Source Fund, told reporters from Jiemian News.

He suggested that this year’s investments can adopt the “dumbbell strategy”: one end of the “dumbbell” is technology-leading stocks representing technological innovation—especially those highlighted in the “15th Five-Year Plan,” such as robotics, chip semiconductors, computing power algorithms, commercial aerospace, solid-state batteries, and controllable nuclear fusion; the other end of the “dumbbell” is heavy-asset, low-volatility traditional blue-chip stocks—i.e., “HALO assets,” such as power grid equipment, non-ferrous metals, coal, oil and gas, and other resources and energy sectors—these remain key directions for the market to focus on.

Yang Chao, Chief Strategy Analyst at China Galaxy Securities, believes that as uncertainty during the earnings season gradually fades, the market is expected to enter a stage of consolidation and bottoming with structural rotation. The three major logics—policy support, money entering the market, and the revaluation of Chinese assets—have not changed. The downside space for A-shares is relatively limited, and the U.S.-Iran conflict has not shaken the long-term foundation of the slow bull market. He suggests taking a performance-led approach and arranging positions when opportunities arise.

CITIC Securities believes that in the short term, the market may still face volatility, but there is no risk of a systematic, large-scale drop in the indices. At present, A-share index options’ skewness has bottomed out and rebounded; out-of-the-money put options are relatively more expensive than their prices. This reflects that the market’s concerns about a second round of geopolitical shocks are consolidating, and near term market risk appetite is unlikely to show a smooth recovery.