Sinopec paces slide in H shares

Shares of China's largest oil refiner, China Petroleum & Chemical (Sinopec) fell 8.08 per cent to $2.275 yesterday after the state-owned company posted a lower than expected second-quarter net profit of 4.28 billion yuan (HK$4.01 billion), down 12.5 per cent from a year earlier.

UBS has lowered its recommendation to 'neutral' from a 'buy', saying the stock's 74 per cent surge this year made it expensive.

Sinopec's fall contributed more than one-third of yesterday's 4.71 per cent slump in the H-share index.

Phillips Securities research director Louis Wong Wai-kit said high oil prices this year had not always been favourable to Sinopec's business model.