Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index led the declines in trading in the Asian market, falling 2.3 percent to 21,027.76. Worries over Chinese property developers and regulatory crackdowns on technology companies were weighing on sentiment.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) conducted a 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) reverse repo operation to help add liquidity to the banking system, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. In a reverse repo, the central bank buys securities from commercial banks with an agreement to sell them back in the future.

Meanwhile, the central bank, through a banking industry association, encouraged smaller lenders to reduce the interest they offer on deposits to alleviate pressure on their finances, the financial magazine Caixin reported.

On Friday, the PBOC reduced the amount of reserves banks have to keep, to free up more money for lending.

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On Monday, China reported that its economy grew at a 1.3 percent quarterly pace in January-March, down from 1.4 percent in the previous quarter. It expanded at a 4.8 percent annual pace, which was better than expected, but economists noted that the impact of shutdowns in dozens of cities, including Shanghai, to control COVID-19 outbreaks was still to come.

The Shanghai Composite index lost less than 0.1 percent to 3,194.03, while most other regional markets advanced. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index rose 0.7 percent to 26,985.09 and the Kospi in Seoul added 1 percent to 2,718.89. In Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.6 percent to 7,565.20. India’s Sensex climbed 0.4 percent and Bangkok’s SET jumped 0.6 percent.

Japan’s Finance Minister, Shunichi Suzuki, on Tuesday reiterated his concern over the dollar’s recent sharp rise against the yen — a consequence of a divergence in monetary policies of the Bank of Japan, which is keeping interest rates low to nurse along the faltering economy, and the Federal Reserve and other central banks that are raising rates to combat surging inflation.

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