Hot stock: Olam jumps by most in 6 years before halting shares from trade

[SINGAPORE] Olam International surged by the most in six years in Singapore before the commodity trading company halted its shares from trade.

Olam, controlled by Singapore's state-investment company, requested the halt pending an announcement, it said on Thursday in a statement without further detail. Spokeswoman Chow Hung Hoeng couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

The company, which began with cashew operations in Nigeria in 1989, has grown into one of the world's top re-sellers of nuts while branching out into coffee, cocoa, rice and cotton. It now grows, processes and trades 44 commodities in 65 countries, and said this month it expects to close its biggest deal to date, a US$1.3 billion acquisition of Archer-Daniels-Midland's cocoa unit by the end of the year.

Olam rose 13 per cent to S$1.91 before the halt, giving it a market value of S$4.7 billion. A close at that price would make it the biggest jump for the group since April 2009. The benchmark Straits Times Index rose two per cent as of 11:50 a.m. local time as stocks rebounded a two-week selloff.