Updates closing prices

By Jiaxing Li

HONG KONG, March 13 (Reuters) - China and Hong Kong shares fell on Thursday as tech and AI-related stocks slipped, while tariff concerns prompted investors to adopt a more defensive stance.

** The Shanghai Composite index .SSEC and the blue-chip CSI300 index .CSI300 both declined 0.4% at close. The Hang Seng Index .HSI weakened 0.6% in Hong Kong.

** Tech shares led the losses in both onshore and offshore trading. The CSI AI Index .CSI930713 dropped 2.5%, its biggest single-day decline in two weeks, while the Hang Seng Tech Index .HSTECH slipped 1.7%.

** Chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation 688981.SS slipped 3%, while Alibaba 9988.HK and Meituan <3690.HK> retreated 2.5% and 2.3%, respectively, in Hong Kong.

** However, the banking index .CSI399986 climbed 0.6% and energy shares .CSIEN rallied 3.1%, helping limit declines.

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

** "We recommend investors book profits on China's tech sector and wait for greater clarity on US tariff policies before entering again," analysts at UBS Global Wealth Management Chief Investment Office said in a note.

** State-owned enterprises and high dividend-yielding sectors such as financial, utilities, and energy are still the place to go under tariff uncertainties, they added.

** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index .MIAPJ0000PUS was weaker by 0.67%, while Japan's Nikkei index .N225 closed down 0.08%.

(Reporting by Jiaxing Li in Hong Kong; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Janane Venkatraman)

((jiaxing.li@tr.com +852 63358304))