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 000001 was down 0.4% and China’s blue-chip CSI300 index 3399300 fell 0.2%.
** The Hang Seng Index 
HSI weakened 0.7% in Hong Kong, while the Hang Seng Tech Index HHSTECH slipped 2.2%.
** Tech shares led the losses in both onshore and offshore trading. The CSI AI Index 9930713 dropped 2.2%, heading for its biggest single-day decline in two weeks, while Alibaba 
BABA 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 
000928 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 
NI225 was up 0.42%.
