China stocks edge towards one-year low, dragged down by AI hardware share

Business Recorder reported that Chinese equities fell on Wednesday as a sell-off in shares linked to artificial intelligence hardware deepened, while investors absorbed mixed domestic inflation data. By the lunch break the blue-chip CSI300 index had lost 0.3 per cent, whereas the Shanghai Composite stayed unchanged. Hong Kong's Hang Seng, by contrast, edged up 0.2 per cent. The benchmark is hovering close to its lowest level in a year.

Producer prices climbed in September at the quickest clip for more than four years, according to the report, while consumer inflation came in below forecasts. Costlier oil and commodities pushed up factory-gate costs, yet weak domestic demand kept wider price pressures in check. Energy stocks gained as crude rose on supply concerns tied to Saudi Arabia, with the Coal Index up 1.2 per cent and the CSI Energy Index nearly 2 per cent higher.

Zhongji Innolight, a maker of optical transceivers for AI data centres, lost 2.6 per cent, while the 5G Communication Index fell 1.5 per cent and the STAR50 dropped 1.1 per cent. HSBC analysts lowered their end-2026 targets for the Shanghai Composite, CSI300 and Shenzhen Composite by 9 to 15 per cent. Hong Kong's tech majors rebounded 1.6 per cent, though that index still sits near a two-year low.