A-shares "veteran stocks" reach delisting warning line! List of low-priced, low-market-cap, and underperforming stocks revealed

The earliest “old stocks” listed on the A-share market now sound the delisting alarm.

*ST Guohua reaches the market value delisting warning line

On April 8, *ST Guohua(000004) opened at a limit-down. During the trading session, the stock once surged straight up, with the highest price coming close to the daily limit-up price. By the close, the stock fell 4.85%, and the latest closing price was 3.53 yuan per share, hitting a new low in nearly 17 years. The A-share market value fell back to 467 million yuan.

On the evening of April 7, *ST Guohua released an announcement stating that the company’s stock closed at 3.71 yuan per share on that day, corresponding to a total market value of 491 million yuan, marking the first time its total market value fell below 500 million yuan. The announcement pointed out that if the company’s stock’s closing total market value remains below 500 million yuan for 20 consecutive trading days, it will have its listing terminated by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and it will not enter the delisting stabilization (restructuring) period.

In addition, the company expects its 2025 net profit after deducting non-recurring gains and losses to be negative, and its operating revenue after deductions to be less than 300 million yuan, which may simultaneously trigger financial-category delisting conditions.

According to the 2025 semi-annual report, *ST Guohua’s core business belongs to the cybersecurity sector, focusing on mobile application security tools, services, and solutions, as well as a security integration business driven with mobile security at its core. *ST Guohua was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on December 1, 1990, on the first day of its trial operation, making it one of the “veteran” listed companies in the A-share market.

*ST Guohua’s earliest abbreviation was “Shen Anda A.” Since its listing, due to factors such as changes in its main business or continuous losses in operating results, the company has changed its abbreviation more than 10 times.

Trading-related delisting is becoming the mainstream

In recent years, the A-share delisting system has been continuously improved. The new delisting rules implemented in 2018 and 2024 clarified the standards for major illegal delisting, refined delisting scenarios, and promoted strict enforcement of the delisting system. The new “National Nine Rules” further strengthened the enforcement efforts, raised delisting standards, and accelerated the exit of low-quality companies.

Under the force of the new delisting rules, diversified delisting indicators have been implemented effectively, and the ecosystem of the A-share market has undergone profound changes. According to the exchanges’ current regulations, delisting includes mandatory termination of listing (referred to as “mandatory delisting”) and voluntary termination of listing. Among mandatory delisting, it is categorized into trading-related mandatory delisting, financial-category mandatory delisting, compliance-related mandatory delisting, and major illegal-activity mandatory delisting, among other situations. Of these, trading-related mandatory delisting is further divided into delisting due to face value, delisting due to market value, delisting triggered when trading volume remains below a certain threshold for a continuous period, and delisting triggered when the number of shareholders remains below a certain threshold for a continuous period, and so on.

According to Securities Times·Data Treasure statistics, as of the close on April 8, since 2024, among delisted stocks categorized by delisting reason, the number of stocks delisted for trading-related reasons was 49, accounting for 57.65% of the total number of delisted stocks. The most recent instance of trading-related delisting was *ST Aowei. That stock was terminated from listing because its closing total market value was below 500 million yuan for 20 consecutive trading days. Before its delisting, *ST Aowei had continued to incur net losses from 2022 to 2024. In the first three quarters of 2025, revenue sharply dropped to 0.34 billion yuan, and it recorded a net loss of 1.88 billion yuan.

From historical data, since 2024, for stocks falling under trading-related delisting scenarios, poor operating performance has been the main trigger. According to Data Treasure statistics, among the 49 delisted stocks mentioned above, the proportion of stocks with net profit losses in 2022 reached 81.63%; the proportion of stocks with net profit losses in 2023 reached 97.78% (stocks with no disclosed annual reports are not included in the calculation), and the average loss amount increased significantly compared with the previous year.

List of poor performers with low market caps and low share prices

Based on stocks with net profit losses in 2023 and 2024, Data Treasure further screened for stocks with low market caps and low share prices. The conditions include: 1. as of the close on April 8, the latest A-share market value is below 2 billion yuan; 2. the latest closing price is below 5 yuan per share.

The statistics show that a total of 16 stocks made the cut. As of the close on April 8, these 16 stocks have averaged fallen 19.3% since the beginning of this year, significantly underperforming the Shanghai Composite Index over the same period. Five stocks have cumulatively declined by more than 30%, namely *ST Jinglun, *ST Guohua, *ST Haihua, *ST Yedao, and *ST Chuntian.

*ST Jinglun has cumulatively fallen 74.11% this year, ranking first. On the evening of April 3, the company released a risk warning announcement stating that its stock’s daily closing total market value had been below 500 million yuan for 20 consecutive trading days, and that it had already reached the trading-related mandatory delisting indicator stipulated by the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The company’s stock has been suspended from trading starting from April 7, 2026.

From the performance data that have been disclosed, and calculated using annual reports, performance express reports, and the lower limit of forecast net profit (if there is no lower limit, the announced figure is used), among the 16 low-priced, low-market-cap stocks with continuous losses mentioned above, there are 14 stocks expected to record net profit losses in 2025. Hongting International, ST Kaiyuan, and Mogaogroup are expected to have net profit losses exceeding 100 million yuan each.

Hongting International expects net profit losses of 3.2 billion yuan to 3.8 billion yuan in 2025. During the reporting period, the company’s main reasons for losses include: the company’s core asset, Shenzhen Hongting Plaza, was judicially ruled to be used to settle debts due to a debt default, resulting in a large amount of extraordinary (non-recurring) losses; in 2024, the company was involuntarily released from certain property business contract(s), directly leading to decreases in related operating revenue and net profit in 2025; some borrowing and financing were involved in lawsuits, driving up finance costs, with finance costs in 2025 estimated at about 5.8 billion yuan; there are signs that market prices in the regions where the investment real estate held by the company and its subsidiaries is located have declined, and after initial communication with appraisers, the company plans to reduce the fair value of its investment real estate.

Statement: All information from Data Treasure does not constitute investment advice. The stock market involves risks; investment requires caution.

Proofreader: Xu Xin