Sinopec, Asia's top refiner, saw 4.335 billion of its non-tradable shares freed-up on Friday, all belonging to its parent company, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. (CPCC). CPCC said it would not cash in any of those shares.

These shares accounted for 5 percent of its total capital stock.

"We have never sold any Sinopec shares and we are not set to do so this time," an unspecified CPCC source told Xinhua on Friday, adding several companies had mirrored the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) watchdog's call to buy back their shares.

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission last month voiced its support to back up its 147 centrally-administered SOEs in buying more stocks of their listed subsidiaries, a move to shore up the sliding stock market.

CPCC has another 57.088 billion non-tradable shares to be unlocked on Oct. 12 next year. But the company did not say how it would deal with those shares.

Sinopec dropped 3.83 percent to 9.8 yuan (1.43 U.S. dollars) per share on Friday.

(Xinhua News Agency October 10, 2008)