China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), China's largest oil refiner, said late Wednesday its net profit in the first quarter of 2010 rose by 39.93 percent year-on-year, due to rebounding domestic demands.

Under international accounting rules, Sinopec's net profit totaled 15.785 billion yuan (2.31 billion U.S. dollars) in the first three months with earnings per share rising by 0.052 yuan to 0.182 yuan, the company said in a statement to the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock markets.

Substantial increases were posted in Sinopec's production of natural gas, refinery throughput of crude oil, sales volume of oil products and production of ethylene thanks to recovery of domestic demands driven by China's rebounding economy.

The refiner giant produced 10.38 million tonnes of crude oil in the first three months, 0.14 percent down from the same period of last year, while the output of natural gas grew sharply by 41 percent to 2.79 billion cubic meters.

Sinopec refined 49.5 million tonnes of crude oil in the first quarter, up 20.4 percent year on year while its sales of oil products totaled 32.84 million tonnes, up 24.3 percent from a year ago.

Listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai, Sinopec is the listed subsidiary of China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group).

Share prices of Sinopec added 0.4 percent to 10.03 yuan in Shanghai Stock Exchange Wednesday, while the price in Hong Kong dropped 2.34 percent to 6.27 Hong Kong dollars. (1 HK dollar = 0.87916 yuan)