Singapore Hot Stocks-UOB rises on private banking plan

SINGAPORE Nov 24 (Reuters) - Shares of Singapore lender United Overseas Bank Ltd (UOB) rose as much as 2 percent on Thursday, on hopes a new plan to provide wealth management services to a group of individuals with rising affluence will boost its earnings.

At 0345 GMT, shares of UOB were traded at S$15.20 with over 2.3 million shares changing hands. It outperformed its peers DBS Group, which was down 0.8 percent and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, which was 0.13 percent higher.

UOB said on Wednesday its new wealth banking service will target a growing segment of individuals with investable assets of at least S$100,000 and make up 25 percent of Singapore's working population.

"UOB has traditionally been lagging behind the other banks on the private banking side, so this could be a boost for them and is providing the stock some support today," said a local trader. (Reporting by Charmian Kok)