Not the best time to play on the bourses

Traders think wise strategy is to stick to stocks with solid fundamentals and steady earnings

For China's stock market traders, life's proving to be tough of late.

The Shanghai Composite Index has swung less than 1 percent on a daily closing basis for 17 days in a row, a phenomenon that last occurred in 2001 when the nation's equity market was just a decade old. Turnover is down 76 percent from last year's peak and a measure of volatility has dwindled to a two-year low.