Chinese Petroleum Firms Shares Lower

China A-shares finished the morning session lower led by energy firms after PetroChina announced weak 2007 results, dealers said.

The weaker close on Wall Street on continuing concerns about the US credit
crisis also hurt stocks, they said.

PetroChina said its net profit in 2007 rose 2.4 pct to 145.63 bln yuan on virtually flat crude oil output. The net profit was at the
lower end of the 145-157 bln yuan range of forecasts by analysts surveyed by XFN-Asia.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) lost 0.5 yuan or 3.64 pct to 13.25 even after the company said it will receive a
12.3 bln yuan government subsidy to offset its refining losses last year.