China's three mainland bourses — the Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing stock exchanges — resumed normal trading on Thursday, October 8, ending a seven-day closure for the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday. The exchanges had earlier announced that markets would be closed from Thursday, October 1 through Wednesday, October 7, reopening on October 8; Stock Connect, the trading link between mainland bourses and Hong Kong, resumed operations the same day.
One point worth clarifying: under the State Council's annual holiday schedule, Saturday, October 10 was designated a "make-up workday" to compensate for days off taken during the seven-day holiday — meaning most government offices, companies and schools were expected to operate as usual that day. The stock exchanges, however, had separately announced that neither of the two make-up workdays falling on weekends (September 20 and October 10) would be trading days; the bourses remain closed on those Saturdays under their normal weekend schedule, regardless of the national work calendar. In other words, a "make-up workday" governs ordinary office and school schedules, not the exchanges' own trading calendar — a distinction investors should not confuse.
On the first trading day after the holiday, mainland shares broadly weakened. According to closing figures reported by multiple financial outlets, the Shanghai Composite Index closed at 3,811.9, down 0.79%, briefly dipping below the 3,800 mark intraday; the Shenzhen Component Index closed at 12,620.9, down 2.07%; the ChiNext Index closed at 3,036.66, down 3.15% — the steepest decline among major gauges; the CSI 300 closed at 4,310.28, down 1.09%; the STAR 50 Index fell 4.82%; and the Beijing Stock Exchange's BSE 50 fell 2.65%. Combined turnover across the two main bourses reached roughly 1.69 trillion yuan, up about 24.42 billion yuan from the last trading session before the holiday, on September 30.
Intraday, the market initially climbed before weakening sharply in the afternoon and taking a late dive; the Shanghai Composite pared some losses in the final minutes of trading but failed to recover fully. Sector performance diverged sharply: technology segments that had rallied heavily beforehand, including AI hardware and optical modules, saw concentrated pullbacks amid clear signs of profit-taking, while defensive, high-dividend sectors such as oil and coal held up comparatively well.
On the global backdrop, overseas risk assets broadly strengthened during China's week-long holiday (October 1-5): according to Wind data, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index gained a cumulative 4.31% over the period and Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 4.78%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 2.29% and the S&P 500 rose 1.6%, driven mainly by AI chip and technology shares. However, the US Federal Reserve was due to release the minutes of its September policy meeting on October 8 Beijing time, with market views still divided over the future pace of rate cuts; combined with recurring tension in the Middle East, volatile oil prices, and concerns that US equity valuations — already at historic highs — might not be matched by third-quarter earnings, these factors together made up what analysts described as "external market disturbances," helping explain the profit-taking in technology shares and the broader pressure on mainland markets on the first trading day back.
According to an analysis cited by financial outlet 21st Century Business Herald from a private-fund manager, the post-holiday decline mainly reflected a combination of external market disturbances, profit-taking in previously hot sectors, and broadly cautious investor sentiment after the long break — rather than any substantive deterioration in listed companies' fundamentals. The decline also came on higher turnover, the analysis noted, suggesting incremental capital was absorbing shares at lower levels rather than a one-sided sell-off.
Historically, the first trading day after the National Day holiday has not always been weak. On October 8, 2024, for instance, a package of economic stimulus measures drove the Shanghai Composite up more than 4% in a single session, with combined turnover briefly setting a record. By contrast, this year's post-holiday caution was more pronounced, reflecting investors' heightened sensitivity to the outlook for further stimulus and volatility in overseas markets.
In fourth-quarter outlook reports published before the holiday, several institutions still generally expected mainland shares to have room for a phased rebound in the fourth quarter, supported by valuation repair and structural opportunities, even as volatility in high-growth technology sectors could intensify in the near term. Market participants broadly expect that, with the Fifth Plenum of the 20th CPC Central Committee convening in late October and further macroeconomic data and policy signals due to be released, market style in the fourth quarter could continue to shift back and forth around policy expectations.