Chinese giant Sinopec sees net profit fall

Chinese oil giant Sinopec, Asia's largest refiner by capacity, announced on Sunday that first-half net profit fell 41 percent year-on-year, reports said. Net profit for the six months ended June 30 was 24.5 billion yuan (3.85 billion US dollars), sharply down from 41.17 billion yuan a year earlier, Dow Jones Newswires and China's state Xinhua news agency reported. First-half revenue rose 9.3 percent to 1.348 trillion yuan from 1.233 trillion yuan. The Hong Kong-listed firm attributed the sharp decline in profits to a significant rise in crude oil prices and restricted prices of gasoline and diesel products, Xinhua said. A drop in the prices of petrochemical products also reduced profits, Xinhua quoted the company as saying. State-owned PetroChina, which is also listed in Hong Kong, said Thursday its net profit for the first half of this year fell 6.0 percent year-on-year due in part to a slowdown in China's economy.