Singapore Hot Stocks

SINGAPORE, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Shares of construction firms soared as expectations Koh Brothers Group and Lian Beng Group would win a lucrative contract lifted sentiment for the whole sector, bucking the downward trend of the market.

A consortium of Koh Brothers and Lian Beng Group are running for contract worth around S$500 million ($348 million) for works related to one of the two casinos under construction in the city-state.

"The market expects that they will win the bid, it's quite a firm deal already," said a local dealer.
Lian Beng rose as much as 5.1 percent to an eight and a half year high of S$0.82 and was the third most actively traded counter on the Singapore bourse with 18.8 million shares traded.

Koh Brothers jumped 6.5 percent to S$0.49 with 8.5 million shares changing hands.

Other construction plays such as Yongnam Holdings rose as much as 3.3 percent to S$0.31 with 7 million shares traded. CSC Holdings was up 1.5 percent to S$0.33 with 6 million traded.

Economic data released on Wednesday showed Singapore's construction sector growing a healthy 24.4 percent in the fourth-quarter.

0145 GMT - Straits Times Index <.STI> down 1.81 percent.