High demand for loans to buy shares in recent initial public offerings has pushed up interest rates, with the overnight rate hitting a high of 5 per cent yesterday.
The rate ended at 4.9 per cent from 4.5 per cent at Tuesday.
'I think the short-term rate will stay at a higher level until the end of the month due to IPO demand,' said Hang Seng Bank head of markets Dennis Wong Wai-hung.
Country Garden Holdings, China Molybdenum and China Citic Bank are among companies scheduled to list in Hong Kong this month to raise a combined HK$64 billion.
Guangdong-based property developer Country Garden was likely to price its HK$12.9 billion offering at the top end of an indicated range after receiving overwhelming demand from institutional and retail investors, market sources said.
Its institutional portion, accounting for 90 per cent of the deal, was 40 times oversubscribed.
Its retail portion, which closed yesterday, was more than 240 times oversubscribed, soaking up HK$300 billion of funds from retail investors, making it the second-hottest share offer in Hong Kong in terms of subscriptions funds received, the sources said.