SHANGHAI: Chinese stocks fell on Tuesday after April activity data broadly missed expectations and pointed to a slow economic recovery trend, while Hong Kong stocks were flat.

China’s blue-chip CSI300 Index closed down 0.5%, while the Shanghai Composite Index declined 0.6%.

Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index was little changed, while the China Enterprises Index edged up 0.1%.

China’s April industrial output and retail sales growth undershot forecasts, suggesting the economy lost further momentum at the start of the second quarter and adding to the raft of recent data highlighting a wobbly post-COVID recovery.

Goldman Sachs analysts said despite more favourable base effects against March, the April activity data “broadly and significantly” missed market expectations.

“The latest China data release adds some more tiles to the mosaic picture of a slow and underwhelming recovery taking place in China,” said analysts at Citi.

The data set follows downside surprises in Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), UBS analysts wrote in a note, adding that “Chinese assets should keep trading with a risk-off tone with bonds rallying, as the post-reopening rebound fades.”

Retail-related sectors were mostly down, with food and beverages and consumer discretionary down 1.0% and 1.3%, respectively.

Meanwhile, energy and semiconductors shares which outperformed in the morning session, edged up 0.2% and 0.8%, respectively.

In Hong Kong, despite a broadly subdued sentiment, tech stocks added 0.8% after filings showed that a few hedge funds added positions for overseas-listed Chinese companies in the first quarter of the year.

JD.com jumped 4.0%, and Tencent Holdings Ltd added 1.1 percent.