Hong Kong stocks rose, halting a five-day decline, after an official Chinese government report showed that retail sales in October grew at the fastest pace since February, indicating that stimulus measures could be arresting a slowdown in economic growth.

The Hang Seng Index climbed 0.5% to 19,541.58 as of 10.00am local time, paring the loss for the week to 5.7 per cent. The Hang Seng Tech Index gained 1.1 per cent.

In terms of star stocks, Online game operator NetEase surged 13% after reporting profits that exceeded analysts’ estimates.

Kuaishou rose 3%; Meituan, Li Auto, Baidu, and SMIC rose 2%; Xiaomi rose 1%; XPeng fell 1%; JD.com fell 2%; Bilibili fell 11%.

On the negative side, Geely Automobile slumped 6 per cent to HK$13.10 after agreeing to buy two unprofitable Chinese electric-vehicle makers. JD.com slid 4.4 per cent to HK$129.20 after Goldman Sachs said that its quarterly revenue missed high expectations by some investors.

Retail sales, a key indicator of consumption, increased by 4.8 per cent year on year last month, the fastest pace since February, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday. That beat the consensus estimate of 3.8 per cent growth by economists tracked by Bloomberg.