HSI range-bound, off 13-month high hit last week
* Sinopharm up 15.8 pct, but market starts discounting rally
* U.S. Fed expected to keep policy rate steady (Updates to close)
By Claire Zhang and Nerilyn Tenorio
SHANGHAI/HONG KONG, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Chinese shares closed lower on Wednesday as the mainland markets remained weighed down by worries over excessive IPO share supply while Hong Kong began to discount the listing debut gains made by Sinopharm (1099.HK).
The markets, which also started factoring in expectations of stable monetary policies by both the United States and China, will be in search of new catalysts for their next trading move.
“People (on Wall Street) are still cautious, and here we would just follow that trading stance. We won’t be seeing very aggressive trading moves,” said Alex Wong, director at Ample Finance Group in Hong Kong.
In Shanghai, traders have started taking profit ahead of the week-long Chinese national holiday from Oct 1.
China’s top pharmaceutical firm Sinopharm debuted in a consolidating Hong Kong market with a 15.8 percent closing gain, which analysts said was relatively modest compared with China’s other recent new listings.
Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index .HSI settled 0.49 percent lower at 21,595.52 points, slipping off the 13-month closing high at the 21,700-level hit last week.
Turnover was HK$58.5 billion ($7.5 billion), up from Tuesday’s HK$50 billion.
The China Enterprises Index .HSCE of top locally listed mainland Chinese stocks was down 0.6 percent at 12,431.81.
Banks and financials were down 1.1 percent, with index heavyweight HSBC (0005.HK) down 1 percent at HK$90.80, China’s leading lender ICBC (1398.HK) down 0.82 percent at HK$6.06, and Bank of China (3988.HK) down 1.15 percent at HK$4.28.
Sinopharm Group Co Ltd, which raised $1.13 billion in its IPO, jumped to as high as HK$19.74, or 23.4 percent above its HK$16 issue price, before closing up 15.8 percent at HK$18.52.
Geely Automobile Holdings (0175.HK), China’s largest privately-owned carmaker, was up nearly 19 percent at HK$2.13, easing back from a 25.7 percent initial gain after the lifting of trading suspension. The carmaker said earlier that it planned to issue HK$2.59 billion ($334 million) in convertible bonds and warrants to an affiliate of Goldman Sachs (GS.N) [ID:nHKG310894].
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