By Jiaxing Li HONG KONG, Oct 8 (Reuters) – Hong Kong stocks fell on Wednesday, led by tech shares and ahead of the Chinese markets reopening after an eight-day National Day holiday. ** Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng was down 1.1%, narrowing an earlier losses. ** The index is now on track to register the third straight day of decline after hitting a fresh four-year high on October 2. ** Risk-off sentiment dominated the region, with Asian stocks down 0.7% following a sluggish session overnight in the U.S. Spot gold climbed to a record $4,000 per ounce level as investors sought safety. ** Tech sectors weighed on the Hong Kong market on Wednesday, with the Hang Seng Tech Index slipping 1.1% and the AI sector index down 1.3%. ** Heavyweights Alibaba lost 3% and Baidu lost 3.4%. ** The decline follows a report that U.S. lawmakers are calling for broader bans on chipmaking tool sales to China, rather than narrower restrictions on specific Chinese chipmakers. ** Also weighing on Hong Kong markets, mainland developers slipped 1.9%, with developer Longfor down 5.6%. ** Still, "the positive rerating is not over" for China equities, both economic and geopolitical factors point to continued outperformance, analysts at Alpine Macro said in a note. ** Bilateral tensions are likely to ease in the run-up to a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping later this month at the APEC summit, they added. ** Mainland China's financial markets will resume trading on Thursday following the eight-day National Day holidays. (Reporting by Jiaxing Li in Hong Kong; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
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