A-shares are once again a sea of red today. The Shanghai Composite Index opened with a poor tone and fell over 30 points throughout the day, failing to hold even the five-day moving average as a defensive line.

Looking at the market, there are still quite a few sectors that gained — concepts like non-metallic materials, Sci-Tech Innovation Board new stocks, controlled nuclear fusion, and wind power equipment are all bouncing around the top of the list. But honestly, these are all hype, with leading sectors gaining less than 2%, completely lacking any strong mainline that can carry the market.

There is a speculative stock worth mentioning: Moel Tencent (摩尔线程), which just listed on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board last Friday, surged over 20% today, with its stock price smashing through 900 yuan, and its market cap soaring to 430 billion. But looking at its Q3 report, it posted a net loss of 720 million, with an estimated full-year loss of 1.4 billion. Such performance and stock price are completely mismatched. Essentially, it’s relying on themes and sentiment to prop up the stock. Knowing that, in the A-shares market, fewer than 40 companies have a market cap over 400 billion — most of them are companies with annual net profits in the hundreds of millions or more, or at least growth potential stocks with their profits doubling.

With the current market conditions so weak, funds are all seeking safe havens. New and secondary stocks have become hot targets. Why? Less trapped positions, easier to push up. Plus, the IPO pace this year has been very slow, with only about 100 companies listing in total. Less supply naturally attracts more attention. Under this scenario, participating in IPOs is actually a good value strategy — winning the lottery on a share is basically guaranteed profit, and if you’re lucky enough to get a target like Moel Tencent, your gains could double right from the start.

Back to the index itself. In the morning, the Shanghai Composite opened 3 points higher at 3903, then started to decline. During the session, it fell over 30 points at most, not only failing to hold the 3900 level but also losing the five-day moving average again. Looking at the daily candlestick chart, the past three weeks the Shanghai index has been bobbing between small gains and small losses, with each fluctuation less than 1%. This sideways movement indicates a severe lack of upward momentum. Even worse, trading volume has been shrinking, so with insufficient volume, how can the index push higher? In the short term, the 20-day moving average is a tough barrier — if it can’t break through, a sustained rebound is unlikely.

The closing data is even worse: over 4,300 stocks declined across both markets, a clear broad decline pattern. The Shanghai market’s turnover was only about 730 billion yuan, a volume that cannot support a rebound and could even lead to further decline. The last trading day of the week is approaching, and based on the current trend, the A-shares are likely to continue drifting downward, consolidating at the bottom. If trading volume doesn’t pick up, the decline might even accelerate.

But even in a bad market, there are always opportunities to find. I see two directions worth watching:

**One is oversold consumer stocks.** On Thursday, the consumer sector dipped again, with retail, dairy, pre-made dishes, apparel, food, and beverage segments all falling more than 2%. Consumer stocks have been declining from their highs for three years now. Many leaders in big consumer sectors like liquor, retail, beverages, food, home appliances, and pharmaceuticals have been cut in half. Anyone with some technical analysis knowledge knows that “oversold means rebound,” and the more severely beaten blue chips are, the bigger the rebound space they usually have in the future. Focus on those with dividend yields over 3%, P/E ratios below 20, and other undervalued, high-profit, high-dividend consumer leaders.

**Two is undervalued pharmaceutical blue chips with good performance.** The pharma sector has always been a haven for risk-averse funds, especially those stocks that are oversold but with stable growth. These blue-chip pharmaceutical stocks have both safe attributes and investment value. The logic is simple — steady profits, steady growth, low valuations, and oversold prices. They have good short-term explosive potential and long-term holding value. Focus on those with three consecutive years of stable net profit growth, P/E ratios below 25, and prices that haven’t risen much this year.

In summary, the market is currently in a weak consolidation phase. It’s unlikely to see a big change in the index in the short term. But as long as you choose the right sectors and control your positions well, there are still opportunities — either wait for oversold rebounds or allocate safe assets, just don’t chase hot spots blindly.