SINGAPORE - The Singapore Exchange (SGX) queried mainboard-listed Yongnam Holdings on Friday morning (April 5) for unusual price and volume movements in its shares.

On Thursday, shares of the specialist civil engineering firm shot up 18.47 per cent to close at $0.186 apiece. Some 17 million shares were traded compared to 700,000 shares the day before.

On Friday morning, the stock rose another 5.38 per cent to a three-month high of $0.196 as of 11.40am, with 15.6 million shares exchanging hands.

SGX also asked Yongnam to confirm its compliance with mainboard-listing rules, in particular, Rule 703, which requires issuers to announce any known information concerning it or any of its subsidiaries or associated companies.

At end-February, the company reported a tripling in net loss for the full year ended Dec 31, 2018, to $51 million from $17.0 million a year ago, after lower contributions from all business segments. Full-year revenue fell 47.4 per cent to $161.4 million. Loss per share rose to 9.76 Singapore cents from 3.50 cents per share the year before.

In its earnings statement, Yongnam had also said it was pursuing a number of "upcoming mega public sector infrastructure projects" in Singapore this year. These had included major contracts for the North-South Corridor and Changi Airport Terminal 5 development works.

It also said then that it was "in active pursuit" of $1.7 billion worth of new infrastructure and commercial projects in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, the Philippines and India. If awarded, these projects would "likely make an impact" from the second half of 2019, it had said.

At end-December, the group's order book stood at $366 million, up $214 million from $152 million a year ago.