China, Hong Kong shares weighed down by tech stocks

By Jiaxing Li

HONG KONG, March 13 (Reuters) - China and Hong Kong shares fell on Thursday, pressured by tech and AI-related firms, although gains in banking and energy stocks helped cushion the broader decline.

** At the midday break, the Shanghai Composite index .SSEC was down 0.4% and China's blue-chip CSI300 index .CSI300 fell 0.2%.

** The Hang Seng Index .HSI weakened 0.7% in Hong Kong, while the Hang Seng Tech Index .HSTECH slipped 2.2%.

** Tech shares led the losses in both onshore and offshore trading. The CSI AI Index .CSI930713 dropped 2.2%, heading for its biggest single-day decline in two weeks, while Alibaba 9988.HK and Tencent 700.HK retreated 2.7% and 1.4%, respectively, in Hong Kong.

** However, the banking index .CSI399986 climbed 0.6% and energy shares .CSIEN rallied 3.2%, helping limit declines.

** On Wednesday, Donald Trump threatened to escalate a global trade war with further tariffs on European Union goods, as major U.S. trading partners said they would retaliate for trade barriers already erected by the U.S. president.

** The resilience of Chinese stocks in the face of the U.S. equity selloff could be unsustainable as the economies could deteriorate as U.S. demand – the sole pillar of global growth in the past two years – vanishes and tariffs bite, analysts at BCA Research said in a note.

** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index .MIAPJ0000PUS fell 0.49% while Japan's Nikkei index .N225 was up 0.42%.