**First time since January 5th! Shanghai Index briefly fell below 4,000 points intraday, how will the market move going forward?**

Why is AI · HALO Asset Becoming a Safe Haven for Funds?

Reporter from Jiemian News | Jiang Yiman

On the afternoon of March 19, the Shanghai Composite Index fluctuated and declined, briefly falling below 4,000 points for the first time since January 5 of this year.

By the close, the three major stock indices all declined. The Shanghai Composite closed at 4,006.55 points, down 1.39%; the Shenzhen Component Index closed at 13,901.57 points, down 2.02%; and the ChiNext Index closed at 3,309.1 points, down 1.11%.

The total trading volume across the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets was about 2 trillion yuan for the day. The market showed a broad decline, with over 4,900 stocks falling and fewer than 500 stocks rising.

From the sector performance, the market showed clear structural differentiation. The oil and gas exploration and services, gas, and coal mining and processing sectors led the gains. Due to ongoing tensions in the Middle East, international oil prices surged significantly, with WTI crude rising to $96 per barrel and Brent crude to $108 per barrel, driving the oil and gas sectors to outperform against the trend.

Among them, Shouhua Gas (300483.SZ) rose over 10%, Tongyuan Petroleum (300164.SZ), Intercontinental Oil & Gas (600759.SH), China National Offshore Oil Corporation (600938.SH), and others also increased.

The coal sector also performed actively, with Shaanxi Black Cat (601015.SH) and Huaneng Power (600726.SH) hitting the daily limit up, and Dafu Energy (600403.SH), China Shenhua (601088.SH), and Shaanxi Coal Industry (601225.SH) also rising.

According to estimates by Changjiang Securities, if the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked long-term, the global demand for coal for power generation could increase by 84.86 million tons annually; if China’s coal chemical plants operate at full capacity, this alone could boost domestic coal consumption by nearly 50 million tons.

In the declining sectors, non-ferrous metals and precious metals led the declines. Influenced by falling international gold prices, gold concept stocks collectively declined, with the main contract of Shanghai silver futures dropping over 10% intraday, breaking below 18,000 yuan per kilogram; Shanghai gold futures fell 3.63%.

Specifically, Weling Co., Ltd. (002667.SZ) closed at the limit down, and stocks like Shanjin International (000975.SZ), CICC Gold (600489.SH), and Luoyang Molybdenum (603993.SH) also saw significant declines.

Yang Delong, Chief Economist at Qianhai Kaiyuan Fund, told Jiemian News: “Because prices had already risen significantly earlier, coupled with escalating Middle East conflicts and increased market risk aversion, investors’ risk appetite has decreased. Non-ferrous metals are typical high-elasticity assets; during the rise phase, they see large gains, and during the decline, they are also prone to concentrated sell-offs.”

He said that in the short term, the overall non-ferrous metals sector is in a correction phase, with funds shifting to so-called “HALO assets,” which are heavy assets with low淘汰率, such as power, power grid equipment, and railways. These traditional blue-chip stocks have relatively low valuations, high dividend yields, and are not easily replaced by artificial intelligence, making them important infrastructure during AI development.

He believes that this round of slow bull market is supported by deep logical fundamentals, including continuous strong policy support for the capital market, large-scale transfer of household savings into the capital market, and China’s technological innovation attracting substantial foreign investment into undervalued Chinese assets. “These fundamentals have not fundamentally changed. Therefore, the volatility in A-shares caused by Middle East conflicts should be viewed as short-term shocks rather than long-term factors.”

Tianfeng Securities believes that the prosperity cycle and core technology are still likely to be the main themes, and the strategy focus may shift toward sectors within cyclical technology with higher performance certainty and better valuation attractiveness.