SINGAPORE: Chinese stock markets fell on Tuesday, with Canadian tariffs weighing on shares of electric vehicle and steel makers and downbeat comments about domestic demand dragging on e-commerce shares, while financials steadied Hong Kong’s market.

The Shanghai Composite index closed 0.24% lower at 2,848.73.

China’s blue-chip CSI300 index fell 0.57%, with the consumer staples sector down 0.83%.

The smaller Shenzhen index ended down 1.26% and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was weaker by 0.943%.

The Hang Seng index closed up 75.94 points or 0.43% at 17,874.67. The financial sector ended 1.15% higher and the property sector rose 0.84%.

PDD Holdings suffered a $55 billion wipeout overnight, after missing market estimates on revenue and warning of changing consumer demand and an uncertain environment.

Alibaba, down 4%, and JD.Com, down 3.7%, were the two biggest losers in the Hong Kong benchmark index. Trip.com, up 9%, was the top gainer after posting a rise in profit.

Canada, following the lead of the US and European Union, said it would impose a 100% tariff on imports of Chinese electric vehicles and 25% on steel and aluminium.

An index tracking China’s EV-related stocks fell 1.2%. Automaker Great Wall fell 0.6%, though BYD and Li Auto pared early losses. The CSI Steel Index fell 1%.

Around the region, MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.34%, while Japan’s Nikkei index closed up 0.47%.

The yuan was quoted at 7.1316 per US dollar, 0.14% weaker than the previous close of 7.1218.

So far this year, the Shanghai stock index is down 4.2% and the CSI300 has fallen 3.7%. The Hang Seng is up 4.4%.

About 23.07 billion shares were traded on the Shanghai exchange, roughly 83% of the market’s 30-day moving average of 27.67 billion shares a day. The volume in the previous trading session was 22.74 billion.

About 2.70 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, 116% of the market’s 30-day moving average of 2.32 billion shares a day.