Hong Kong, Aug 17 (Reuters) - China stock indexes were flat on Thursday while the Hang Seng Index sank to a nine-month low, as the deepening property crisis and concerns about potential spillover from payment woes of shadow banking-linked trust products weighed on sentiment.

** China's blue-chip CSI300 Index was flat at 3816.38 by the lunch break, while the Shanghai Composite Index held its ground at 3150.29.

** Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng was down 0.12% at 18308.06, recouping some losses seen earlier in the session when the index sank more than 2%.

** "The recent batch of weak economic data has shown that the country's recovery is stalling. Further weighing on sentiment is the debt crisis faced by the country's property and (trust) sector," said Kenny Ng, a securities strategist at China Everbright Securities International.

** Zhongzhi Enterprise Group told investors it is facing a liquidity crisis and will conduct debt restructuring, Reuters reported on Thursday, as the Chinese asset manager grapples with a deepening property market downturn.

** The move came after Zhongrong International Trust, which had sizable real estate exposure and is a leading trust company controlled by Zhongzhi, has recently missed repayments on some investment products, fuelling contagion fears.

** Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index was down 1.54%.

** Shares of Country Garden lost 3.61%, hitting a historical low of 80 cents.

** Earlier this week, the company was seeking to delay payment on a private onshore bond for the first time, after suspending trading in 11 onshore bonds, Reuters reported.

** "The good news is that Chinese policymakers had implemented strong macroprudential regulation in the past, so the banking system should see limited risks from real estate," said DBS analysts in a client note on Thursday.

** Keeping the indexes buoyant in China were tech stocks, as the CSI Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment Index climbed 1.35%.

** SSE High-end Equipment Manufacturing 60 Index rose 1.34%

** Defence-related stocks led the gains, as Xian Chenxi Aviation Tech rose 6% and Chengdu Zhimingda Electronics surged 9.5%.

(Reporting by Georgina Lee; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)