Mainland stocks failed to keep pace with the previous day's 3 per cent surge on Wednesday, with the Shanghai benchmark settling for a modest gain while its Hong Kong counterpart lost ground. Investors on both sides of the border were awaiting the release of the Federal Reserve's April minutes for clues on interest rate policies in the US. The Hang Seng Index lost 0.39 per cent, or 108.49 points, to finish at 27,585.05, after investors were unsettled by a massive plunge in the shares of Hanergy Thin Film Power Group. However, the H-share index, a gauge of mainland companies listed in Hong Kong, gained 0.31 per cent to 14,235.90. Turnover on the main board and Growth Enterprise Market edged higher to HK$140.2 billion, up from HK$138.6 billion on Tuesday. The Shanghai Composite Index saw volatile trading, with bounces of more than 2 per cent for most of the day, before finishing up 0.65 per cent at 4,446.29. The Shenzhen Composite Index and Shenzhen's ChiNext board rose 1.39 and 2.51 per cent, respectively. Shares worth almost 2 trillion yuan (HK$2.53 trillion) changed hands in the two cities, up from 1.4 trillion yuan on Tuesday. "From a valuation perspective, the Chinese A-share market is trading on a par with the US, but if you look at China, the story is quite different. H shares are trading at just above 10 times, so there is still a huge discount to historical average," said Winnie Chiu, senior director for markets and investment solutions at Credit Agricole Private Banking. Oil majors dropped in Hong Kong after a Goldman Sachs report forecast the oil price could drop to as low as US$45 per barrel in October. CNOOC and PetroChina each fell 0.5 per cent, while Sinopec edged down 0.2 per cent. Louis Tse, a director at VC Brokerage, said overall sentiment was hurt by a 47 per cent plunge in Hanergy, the mainland solar equipment firm controlled by tycoon Li Hejun. "Besides Hanergy's unusual share price movement, investors are looking for cues from the Fed's minutes, which should give a dovish tone on its pace of monetary policy," Tse said. Andrew Milligan, head of global strategy at Standard Life Investments, said that while he expected the Fed would raise rates in the second half of 2015, it was the pace of increases that was critical for emerging markets. Among the losers yesterday was Tencent, which dropped 1.7 per cent to HK$158.60.