Sinopec Corp, Asia's largest refiner, will buy two refinery units from its parent for 356 million yuan (US$43 million) in cash.

The investment will boost its asphalt and refining capacity, the company announced yesterday.

The acquired Xi'an Petrochemical and Tahe Petrochemical will become Sinopec's only two oil refineries in the northwestern region to feed products to its regional sales network.

Analysts say the deal is also to allow the company to cash in on the present high refinery margin.

Stimulated by the news, shares of Sinopec rose by 7.3 per cent to end at HK$3.3 (42 US cents) yesterday on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Under the deal, Sinopec will purchase Xi'an Petrochemical for 220.8 million yuan (US$26.7 million) and Tahe Petrochemical for 135.2 million yuan (US$16.3 million) from Sinopec Group Co, the company said in a statement.

"The timing for the acquisition is good as the outlook of China's refinery operations over the coming two years is optimistic,'' said an analyst with ING.

"The demand for oil products is strong and refinery margins are improving.''

After the completion of the acquisition, Sinopec is expected to increase its combined crude oil processing capacity to 3.5 million tons.

The two refineries are now able to process 2.2 million tons of crude oil annually.

Meanwhile, the company said the acquisitions will raise its production of asphalt to about 3 million tons a year, compared with 2.2 million tons for 2002.

Sinopec accounts for more than half of the production of asphalt in China.

The Xi'an and Tahe refineries are believed to have produced about 600,000 tons of asphalt for 2003.

The statement said Sinopec will fund the purchases with cash from internal resources.

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