SHANGHAI, June 27 (Reuters) - China stocks fell on Thursday as the country's industrial profits rose at a much slower pace in May, while investors awaited manufacturing activity data due on Sunday. Tech shares dragged Hong Kong stocks down.

** China's industrial profits rose at a sharply slower pace in May, underlining the struggles faced by the world's second-largest economy as weak domestic demand crimps overall growth.

** China's blue-chip CSI300 Index dropped 0.4% by the lunch break, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.5%. Hong Kong benchmark Hang Seng was down 2.0%.

** Property shares in China and Hong Kong were not reacting positively after Beijing announced steps on Wednesday to reduce the cost of buying a home.

** Meanwhile, investors are expecting that China's manufacturing activity data likely contracted for a second month in June, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday.

** At the midday break, the Shanghai Composite index was down 0.51% at 2,957.39 points.

** China's blue-chip CSI300 index was down 0.41%, with its financial sector sub-index higher by 0.4%, the consumer staples sector down 0.85%, the real estate index down 0.85% and the healthcare sub-index down 1.32%.

** Chinese H-shares listed in Hong Kong fell 2.21% to 6,334.35, while the Hang Seng Index was down 2.04% at 17,721.01.

** Tech companies traded in Hong Kong were down 2.5%, with delivery giant Meituan down 2.9% and E-commerce giant Alibaba down 2%.

** The smaller Shenzhen index was down 0.85%, the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was weaker by 1.06% and Shanghai's tech-focused STAR50 index was down 1.42%.

** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.73% while Japan's Nikkei index was down 1.00%.

** The yuan was quoted at 7.2686 per U.S. dollar, 0.03% weaker than the previous close of 7.2667. (Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom; Editing by Janane Venkatraman )