Investors who embraced small- and mid-cap tech stocks are left in tears.

Three months ago, retail investors who heeded the call to ditch ‘old-school’ blue-chip stocks and pivot into tech stocks were hit hard—on both ends—and suffered the steepest losses! Within just three months, most of these stocks halved in price; many plunged by two-thirds; and several tumbled over 70%. Deliming: share price fell from ¥699 to today’s ¥212 Jiangbolong: from ¥750 to ¥245 Hengtong Optic-Electric: from ¥125 to ¥45 ZTE’s Zhongji Xunlun: from ¥1,416 to ¥659 Xinyisheng: from ¥619 to ¥309 GigaDevice: from ¥847 to ¥275 VeriSilicon: from ¥376 to ¥124 Shenghong Technology: from ¥403 to ¥185 Yangjie Technology: from ¥162 to ¥72 Han’s Laser: from ¥168 to ¥62 Huagong Technology: from ¥188 to ¥76

Stop guessing market direction! The core formula behind market moves (Part II)

Risk-free interest rate — essentially the return on investments with no risk (e.g., 10-year government bond yields or bank fixed-deposit rates) — is determined by national monetary policy. For ordinary investors, remember just one rule: • Rate hikes → higher risk-free rate → stock prices tend to fall • Rate cuts → lower risk-free rate → stock prices tend to rise As China deepens its integration into the global economy, U.S. Federal Reserve monetary policy also influences China’s own monetary stance — so it too warrants attention. Key observation indicators: Fed monetary policy, PBOC monetary policy, and official central bank announcements (e.g., rate hikes or cuts). Supplementary note: Long-term trends in developed economies show a general decline in interest rates — implying that, over time, market risk appetite gradually rises, and equity assets like stocks offer greater long-term appreciation potential. Corporate earnings growth (meso- and micro-level) Companies operate within industries, whose health is driven by cyclical industry prosperity — rooted fundamentally in supply-demand imbalances. Take any emerging industry as an example: it typically passes through four phases — initiation, growth, maturity, and consolidation/clearance. Observation indicators: industry prosperity index, trend in corporate ROE, trend in corporate earnings. Valuation (micro-level) Valuation is the topic we discuss most frequently on this platform. In our ‘Global Index Traffic Light’ tool, we use percentile rankings of PE and PB ratios for valuation. Here, we introduce another simple method: the earnings yield approach. For more details, refer to our earlier article ‘Common Index Valuation Methods’. Earnings Yield = 1 ÷ PE • PE = 40 → Earnings Yield = 2.5% • PE = 10 → Earnings Yield = 10% This explains why paying high prices (i.e., high PE) leads to low returns: if a company’s annual earnings growth is only ≤10%, yet its PE stands at 40, its earnings yield is merely 2.5% — even lower than returns offered by top-tier bank wealth management products. The ‘Global Index Traffic Light’ visualizes precisely this principle — sowing seeds when PE/PB percentiles signal undervaluation. What drives PE? Primarily the first two factors — corporate earnings and interest-rate changes — but also investor sentiment: when investors grow optimistic about the future, they actively participate in trading, thereby pushing up stock PE valuations. Observation indicators: PE valuation, market turnover volume, and new account openings — all useful gauges of investor sentiment. Core Summary: No need to guess market direction — just remember ‘one formula + three observation points’ Individual investors need not get bogged down in complex academic models. Remembering the following essentials helps avoid blind herd behavior: 1. The Price Movement Formula (core): Stock price movement ≈ Change in corporate earnings + Level of valuation (PE) + Change in risk-free interest rate 2. Three Observation Points (practical application & monitoring): ① Earnings: assess industry supply-demand cycles; identify sectors where prosperity is rising or turning upward. ② Valuation: use PE/PB percentiles from the ‘Index Traffic Light’ plus earnings yield to gauge whether valuations are high or low.

Ascent Industries Stock Trades 22.77% Below 52-Week High

Oct 20, 2026

Ascent Industries shares trade 22.77% below their 52-week high despite reporting a 37.6% year-over-year increase in net sales and $1.5 million in adjusted EBITDA for Q2 2026 within the specialty chemicals sector.

ad-hoc-news.de

2026-04-01

Ascent Industries Co. Announces Board Appointments, Effective April 1, 2026

2026-04-01

Ascent Industries Appoints Two Proven Specialty Chemicals Leaders to Board of Directors

2026-04-02

Ascent Industries Expands Board and Adds Independent Directors

2026-04-27

Ascent Industries Schedules First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call for May 6

2026-05-01

Ascent Industries (ACNT.US) to Release Earnings Report After Market Close on May 6