Sinopec net profit falls 41% to $ 3.85 bn

Chinese oil giant Sinopec, Asia\'s largest refiner by capacity, announced yesterday 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), 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.