These two brothers in finance have been performing rather lukewarmly lately: China Life Insurance is still the same old story, down almost 1%, truly the epitome of caution and defensiveness everywhere. The slight gain from ICBC is like applying a patch, not giving much confidence.

Honestly, with these big blue-chip stocks, you don't want to sell when they don't fall, and there's no excitement when they don't rise. Those holding them are probably quite conflicted inside: wanting to switch tracks but unwilling to take a loss, lying there collecting dividends for retirement? Forget it, let's continue idling in a zen-like state, saving the bullets for something with more volatility.