Tuesday's Asian stock market remained inside a narrow range as traders processed a mixed bag of data on Chinese corporate activity

Tuesday saw a little increase in the Shanghai Composite and Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 indices of China as traders processed a series of mixed purchasing managers index (PMI) data for April. Official statistics indicated that while growth in non-manufacturing activity fell significantly more than anticipated in April, growth in manufacturing activity dropped slightly less than anticipated in March.

The manufacturing sector was more optimistic in a private poll, although the aggregate PMI figures indicated some slowing of activity following a robust first quarter.

Nevertheless, Chinese markets continued to rise in April, and local stock indices are expected to beat their regional counterparts for the month.

Amidst profit-taking in technology and traders' significant discount to forecasts of an early interest rate decrease by the Federal Reserve, the majority of other Asian stocks outside of China were expected to record losses in April.

Tuesday saw a 1.3% increase in Japan's Nikkei 225, and 2.1% increase in catch-up activity on the TOPIX following Monday's market vacation.

However, the Nikkei was by far the weakest performance in Asia through the month of April due to a strong dose of profit-taking and a cloud of uncertainty surrounding the policies of the Bank of Japan. In April, the Nikkei fell by over 5% while the TOPIX fell by 0.9%.

The KOSPI in South Korea increased by 0.6% on Tuesday, but due to losses in technology companies, it was down 1.5% for the month of April.

Over in the UK, the FTSE 100 began the day higher as inflation in UK retail prices fell to levels not seen in over 25 years.

The British Retail Consortium said that shop price inflation decreased to 0.8% in April from 1.3% in March, marking the lowest level since December 2021.

Inflation of non-food prices even went negative, declining to 0.6% in the month from 0.2%, the lowest level since October 2021.

For the twelfth consecutive month, food inflation decreased to 3.4% from 3.7%, reaching its lowest level since March 2022.

The corporate news for today includes HSBC's quarterly results, where CEO Noel Quinn also made his unexpected resignation after five years known.

(Sources: investing.com, reuters.com, proactiveinvstors.co.uk)