SINGAPORE - Construction and property group Chip Eng Seng Corp halted the trading of its shares before the market opened on Friday (Oct 5) after a late Thursday rally in its stock drew a trading query from the Singapore Exchange.

Chip Eng Seng said that the trading halt was pending an announcement.

The company's stock spent most of Thursday lying in negative territory on thin volumes. But volume spiked after 4pm, and the share price climbed sharply before ending the day at 94.5 cents, with most of the gain of 5.6 per cent, or 5 cents, coming in the last hour of the trading session. A total of 8.9 million shares changed hands on Thursday.

The Singapore Exchange issued a trading query at 4.27pm on Thursday, asking the company if it was aware of any information that could explain the unusual trading activity.