Asia stocks mostly lower with Fed in focus

Asian markets moved lower on Thursday, as fears that the U.S. Federal Reserve could soon start to cut its bond-buying program weighed further on regional sentiment, though Hong Kong's largest listing in 2013 started trading with a pop.

China Cinda Asset Management (HK:1359)  , Hong Kong's largest initial public offering this year, surged 31.8% on its debut. The financial firm, which processes Chinese bad debt from Chinese banks and converts it into equity stakes, raised $2.5 billion in an IPO that priced at the top of its price range.

A number of other companies started trading in Hong Kong. Among them was Qinhuangdao Port Co. (HK:3369) , which raised $561 million after pricing its IPO at the low end of its range. Shares in China's largest coal-port operator by capacity dropped 7.8% when they started trading.

Chinese pharmaceutical retailer Jintian Pharmaceutical Group Ltd. (HK:2211) , which raised $189 million in an IPO after pricing its deal at the low end of the price range, fell 13.8% on its first day of trading.

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The Hong Kong stock market moved lower, with the Hang Seng Index (HK:HSI)  down 0.5%, while the Shanghai Composite (CN:SHCOMP)  also fell 0.5%.

More broadly, overnight trading on Wall Street gave Asia a negative lead, as U.S. stocks fell sharply after a bipartisan budget deal from Congress raised expectations that the Fed could start to scale back its stimulus measures as early as next week.

The forthcoming Fed policy meeting, set to end Dec. 18, has weighed on market sentiment in Asia in recent sessions — especially after the U.S. posted another strong monthly labor report on Friday. Speculation over when the central bank will pare its easy-money policies has been a constant theme in Asia for much of the year and has triggered a number of selloffs during the summer.

The dollar lost 0.4% against the yen (USDJPY)  overnight, though it made a recovery on Thursday, trading at ¥102.56, compared with ¥102.45 late Wednesday in New York. Earlier this week, the dollar was close to reaching a fresh multiyear high against its Japanese counterpart.

The weaker yen was a catalyst for strong gains in Japanese stocks in November, but as the dollar lost its upward momentum, the Nikkei Stock Average (JP:NIK)  pulled back. On Thursday, the Japanese benchmark was down 1.5%.

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South Korea's Kospi (KR:SEU)  fell 0.6%.

Stock trading in Sydney remained depressed, with the S&P/ASX 200 (AU:XJO)  down 1.2%, after Australia's unemployment rate rose in November to 5.8%, moving closer to a post-financial crisis high.

The market has been weighed by a flood of IPOs hitting the market before Christmas, as well as a surprise profit warning earlier in the week from QBE Insurance Group Ltd. (AU:QBE)   (QBEIF)  that hit broader market sentiment. The insurer lost another 5.7% on Thursday, bringing its total weekly loss to 32.8%.

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