Major SOEs increase stakes amid market rout

BEIJING - Two major State-owned enterprises (SOEs) announced Wednesday night that their parent companies had followed the government encouragement and purchased more of their shares.

China's largest oil refiner, Sinopec Corp, said Sinopec Group bought 46 million of its Shanghai-listed shares on Wednesday, or 0.04 percent of its 121 billion shares, bringing its total holdings in its subsidiary to 71.3 percent.

Sinopec Group promised to buy a maximum of 2 percent of shares, including Wednesday's purchase, in the coming 12 months.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on Wednesday encouraged major shareholders and senior managers to steady stock prices by buying more shares when prices fall sharply.

The stock market has taken a nose dive over the last month, with the Shanghai Composite Index shedding more than 30 percent.

The nation's top coal miner, Shenhua Energy Co Ltd, said Shenhua Group bought 8.02 million shares listed in Shanghai, taking its holdings to 73.05 percent.

On the same day, Sinopec said in a filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange that it expected its Q2 net profits to rise more than 10 fold compared with the previous quarter.