The Hong Kong stock market closed mixed. The Hang Seng Index rose 0.2%, the Hang Seng Technology Index fell 0.1%.

Chinese pharmaceutical stocks got a boost from Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals’ strong debut in Hong Kong on Friday. The nation’s biggest drug maker by market capitalisation surged by as much as 25%. BYD climbed 2% after its electric vehicle sales in Europe surpassed Tesla’s for the first time in April.

Hengrui Pharma soared 25%; Bilibili up 4.4%; BYD up 2%; Li Auto up 1%; XPeng fell 4%; Xiaomi fell 0.4%; Alibaba fell 0.3%.

“Recent economic data showed that external demand remains strong and domestic demand is recovering but mildly,” said Wang Jun, an analyst at BOC International. “The risk of downside to economic growth is low, as China has plenty of room for policy measures. But a further breakout of the market depends on the strength of the economic recovery.”

Investors brushed aside Moody’s downgrade of the US government’s credit rating this week to focus on the implications of the 90-day tariff truce between the US and China, and the first set of post-tariff data from the Asian nation. The mixed data showed that industrial production and exports remained resilient despite the US levies of as much as 145 per cent, while retail sales and fixed-asset investments lagged.