HONG KONG/LONDON, July 30 (Reuters) - HSBC Holdings ( HSBC )

reported a 26% slide in first-half pretax profit on

Wednesday, missing analyst estimates, as a $2.1 billion

impairment from its investment in Bank of Communications

weighed.

Europe's largest bank posted a pretax profit of $15.8

billion for the first six months of this year, versus $21.6

billion a year earlier.

The result compared with the $16.5 billion average of broker

estimates compiled by HSBC ( HSBC ).

(Reporting by Selena Li in Hong Kong and Lawrence White in

London; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)