A woman cycles past the Beijing Stock Exchange building adorned with Lunar New Year decorations, on the Financial Street in Beijing, China on Feb. 8. (Florence Lo/File Photo/Reuters)

(Reuters) – China and Hong Kong stocks opened lower on Tuesday, as investors awaited the upcoming annual parliamentary sessions to gauge Beijing’s policy path.

China’s blue-chip CSI300 Index .CSI300 dropped 0.6% at open, while the Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC lost 0.5%. Hong Kong benchmark Hang Seng .HSI slipped 1.4%.

Market focus is shifting from the recent tech and AI themes to the National People’s Congress (NPC) meeting on Wednesday.

Beijing was expected to maintain its economic growth target at roughly 5% and announce a budget deficit of 4% of GDP.