CORRECTED - CORRECTED-Singapore Hot Stocks-NOL rises 7.7 percent after exits
(Corrects headline and lead to remove "28-mth high" milestone)
SINGAPORE, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Shares in container shipper Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) (NEPS.SI) jumped as much as 7.7 percent as investors cheered its move to abandon plans to buy Germany's Hapag-Lloyd.
The firm, which was in the running to buy Hapag-Lloyd from TUI AG (TUIGn.DE), dropped out of the race late on Friday after its offer lapsed.
No reason was given, but Ron Widdows, NOL's chief executive, said the company will now focus on the down cycle in the container shipping industry.
"It dropped its plans to buy Hapag and that would be good. In this kind of environment, acquisitions won't be viewed positively," said a dealer with a regional brokerage.
"They could have overpaid, and in this kind of environment, credit will be hard to get," he said.
By 0157 GMT, the stock was up 7.05 percent at S$1.67 with 1.2 million shares traded.
The Straits Times index was up 1.7 percent at 1,981.43 points. (Reporting by Koh Gui Qing; Editing by Daryl Loo)
