Aug 5 (Reuters) - Hong Kong stocks ended lower in a volatile session on Thursday, as uncertainty around regulatory tightening in the tech sector sapped risk appetite.
At the close of trade, the Hang Seng index was down 221.86 points or 0.84% at 26,204.69. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index fell 1.3% to 9,296.43.
The sub-index of the Hang Seng tracking technology shares dropped 2.1%, while the IT sector fell 2.31%.
The Chinese Communist top decision-making body at its latest meeting mentioned terms like "anti-monopoly" and "curbing disorderly expansion by capital", portending a regulatory storm that would crush tech stocks in the coming months, said Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie in Hong Kong.
The three biggest H-share percentage decliners were Kuaishou Technology , down 15.3%, Alibaba Health Information Technology Ltd , which fell 6.17% and Country Garden Services Holdings Co Ltd, which shed 4.75%.
Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.29%, while Japan's Nikkei index closed up 0.52%.
This week, the MSCI Asian regional benchmark has recovered most of the ground lost a week earlier, when a series of Chinese regulatory crackdowns on sectors from property to education squeezed Chinese stocks and overshadowed the region as a whole.
(Reporting by the Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Ramakrishnan M.)
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