Last checked at 
* Stocks end flat after dropping as much as 0.9%
* European gaming stocks rattled by Chinese regulations
* easyJet worst performer on STOXX 600 after stock sale
(Updates to market close)
By Sruthi Shankar and Ambar Warrick
Sept 9 (Reuters) - Euro zone stocks bounced off session lows
to end little changed on Thursday after the European Central
Bank signalled it will only slightly reduce its emergency bond
purchases over the coming quarter, as widely expected.
After falling as much as 0.9% in morning trade, the
pan-European STOXX 600 index ended largely unchanged
around 467.57 points. The index had shed 1.5% over the past two
days on fears of a more-hawkish-than-expected ECB.
Rate-sensitive banking stocks in the bloc rose 0.2%,
while real estate stocks led gains with a 1.0% rise.
The ECB, while taking a token step towards unwinding the
emergency aid, gave no signal of its next policy move, including
how it might dismantle the 1.85-trillion-euro Pandemic Emergency
Purchase Programme (PEPP), which has kept borrowing costs low
for governments and businesses.
"Today’s meeting confirms our earlier expectations that PEPP
will end after March. That said, the ECB clearly remains
data-dependent, and has kept all options open for December,"
Rabobank analysts wrote in a note.
"That desire to remain flexible is also underscored by the
avoidance of the word ‘tapering’, and the message that today did
not mark a turning point for PEPP."
Analysts now expect the ECB to outline plans for major
policy changes by December, and a gradual phasing out of the
PEPP by March 2022.
UK's FTSE 100 led losses among regional indexes with
a 1.0% drop.
British airline easyJet tumbled 10.2% and was the
worst performer on the STOXX 600 after it rejected a takeover
approach from Wizz Air, opting instead to raise $1.7
billion from shareholders and go it alone in an industry
battling to recover from the pandemic.
Rival British Airways-owner IAG fell 1.1%, while
Wizz Air dropped 1.2%, weighing on the wider travel & leisure
index.
After hitting record highs in mid-August, the STOXX 600 has
traded below those levels amid investor worries over the
fast-spreading Delta coronavirus variant, a slowing economic
recovery, and the withdrawal of stimulus by major central banks.
With Chinese gaming stocks coming under pressure from fresh
regulatory scrutiny, Dutch investor Prosus, which has a
stake in Chinese tech giant Tencent, fell
5.2%.
European gaming stocks including France's Ubisoft,
Embracer and Rovio fell 1.6% and 3.2%,
respectively.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Sagarika Jaisinghani in
Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Uttaresh.V and
Bernadette Baum)
