China’s stock decline has sharpened concern over company profits, as the CSI 300 briefly entered technical bear-market territory and earnings estimates fell despite continued economic growth.
Reuters put the CSI 300 at 4,036.30 at the Shanghai close on Oct. 22, a 20.2% fall from its June 22 closing high. That close put the index below the level commonly used to define a technical bear market. It rose 1.7% on Oct. 23, but still lost 1.6% for the week and stood about 19% below the high, marking its 11th consecutive weekly loss, Reuters reported. The benchmark’s bear-market entry was covered in an earlier EconoTimes report.
Reuters said the Hong Kong technology gauge lost 5% on Oct. 22, reaching its lowest level in two years; it had not been that low since Beijing announced its market-support package in September 2024. Bloomberg’s estimates of the broader stock-market loss differed: its Oct. 25 report put the decline from a May peak at US$3.5 trillion, while an Oct. 22 report estimated US$2.4 trillion. The reports did not explain the gap.
Bloomberg’s data show the 2026 consensus outlook has weakened from late March: estimates are down by over 4% for MSCI China companies and over 13% for Hang Seng Tech members. Among MSCI China members that had released results, Bloomberg found earnings averaged 9% below consensus.
China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said preliminary gross domestic product grew 4.5% year over year in the third quarter. September retail sales totaled 4,243.3 billion yuan, up 1.1% from a year earlier. Ulrich Urbahn, Berenberg’s head of multi-asset strategy and research, told Bloomberg that strength in manufacturing and exports had yet to show up consistently in domestic spending or corporate profitability.
Company results varied. Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) reported third-quarter revenue of RMB165.22 billion, up 58.58% year over year, and net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company of RMB21.25 billion, up 14.54%. Bloomberg reported that CATL’s profit was below analyst expectations. China Mobile reported that revenue for the first nine months fell 1.8% to RMB780.3 billion, while profit attributable to equity shareholders fell 7.9% to RMB106.2 billion.
Price measures also differed by category. The NBS said China’s industrial producer price index (PPI) rose 5% year over year in September, while its consumer-goods component fell 0.1%.
