Singapore Hot Stocks-Yanlord gains after Goldman Sachs upgrade

SINGAPORE, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Shares of Yanlord Land
(YNLG.SI) rose as much as 8.8 percent on Tuesday after Goldman
Sachs upgraded the property firm to "buy" from its previous
"neutral" rating, citing a healthy financial position and
attractive valuation.

"We expect its gross margin to remain at over 50 percent in
the coming two years, thanks to its high-margin Shanghai
Yanlord Riverside City Ph III project," said Goldman Sachs said
in a client note on China real estate developers on Tuesday.

Goldman said Yanlord's current valuation suggests a 50-60
percent decline in property prices in its key Chinese markets
including Shanghai, which the U.S. bank said was unlikely.

Shares of Hong Kong property counters also rose sharply on
Tuesday after recent land registry data showed a significant
improvement in December 2008 home sales as compared with the
previous month. [ID:nHKG315930]

Yanlord has gained around 17 percent so far this year after
its shares slumped 73 percent in 2008, underperforming the
benchmark Straits Times Index, which fell by almost half.

By 0350 GMT, Yanlord was up 2.9 percent to S$1.05, while
Singapore's top property firm CapitaLand (CATL.SI) was down 5.9
percent.

The benchmark Straits Times Index was down 0.73 percent.
(Reporting by Laurence Tan; Editing by Neil Chatterjee)