(Corrects lead paragraph to show profit boosted by chemicals division earnings, not refinery throughput)
HONG KONG/BEIJING, April 28 (Reuters) - Sinopec Corp , Asia's top oil refiner, reported a 24.5 percent rise in first-quarter net profit, largely helped by higher profit from its chemicals division.
Sinopec's net profit totalled 20.5 billion yuan ($3.2 million) for the January-March period, higher than the 16.5 billion yuan it reported for the same period a year earlier, it said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange.
The results were based on Chinese accounting standards.
Most analysts do not forecast first quarter financial results for Sinopec.
From January to March, Sinopec's crude throughput fell 5.8 percent from the same period a year ago, while its natural gas production was up 29.8 percent.
Refinery throughput also rose 7.4 percent in the first quarter, compared to a year earlier.
Sinopec has been suffering from higher crude prices because it buys more than 70 percent of its crude oil supply on the open market. (Reporting by Lee Chyen Yee and Wan Xu)