Top 20 construction stocks gain 56% as earnings outlooks diverge

Their combined year-to-date average daily trading turnover nearly quadrupled. 

Singapore’s 20 largest listed construction value-chain stocks gained an average of 56% over the past 12 months, even as higher material, labour, and subcontracting costs produced uneven earnings expectations across the sector.

Their combined year-to-date average daily trading turnover increased close to fourfold, according to a Singapore Exchange (SGX) market update.

The gains come as the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) projected construction demand of $47b to $53b in 2026, following $50.5b last year. Meanwhile, annual demand is expected to average $39b to $46b from 2027 to 2030.

“Recent corporate announcements continue to indicate sustained project activity,” SGX said.

The bourse cited Boustead Singapore, which reported an engineering order backlog of about $840m at the end of FY2026 and secured $461m in engineering contracts and major variations at the start of FY2027.

However, it noted that July had brought divergent earnings guidance across the sector.

Hock Lian Seng Holdings expects an operating loss for the first half of the year due to higher costs in its civil engineering business. Its share price declined 38.5% over the past 12 months, the weakest performance amongst the companies covered by the update.

A separate Turner & Townsend report expects construction cost inflation to rise 4% this year from 1% in 2025 amidst the growing demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure, particularly data centres.

The consultancy ranked Singapore as the 55th most expensive construction market globally, with average construction costs of $4,437.08 per square metre.

On the workforce front, the sector’s employees averaged 47.4 paid working hours per week in 2025, the lowest level recorded in the past decade, according to the Ministry of Manpower’s Labour Market Survey.

The average workweek fell by 4.7 hours from 52.1 hours in 2015. Paid hours declined to 50 hours in 2019 and 48.1 hours in 2020 before rising to 49.8 hours in 2021 and 49.9 hours in 2022, the survey added.

Despite the cost pressures, several construction-related counters posted triple-digit gains over the past year, according to SGX. International Cement Group rose 252.6%, followed by GRC at 175.6%, Soilbuild Construction at 128.6%, and Koh Brothers Eco Engineering at 100%.

Construction output grew 11.8% year-on-year in the first quarter (Q1), before expanding 6.2% in the second-quarter advance estimate.

“The sector was the fastest-growing major sector in Q1, with growth supported by both public and private sector construction activity, including institutional, residential, and industrial developments,” SGX added.

Key projects include Changi Airport Terminal 5, the Marina Bay Sands expansion, the New Tengah General & Community Hospital, the Downtown Line 2 Extension, and the Thomson-East Coast Line Extension.

In addition, the government has introduced measures to reduce the cost of testing construction technologies and support their wider adoption across the built environment sector.

The BCA is waiving space rental fees for technology sandboxes at the Built Environment Innovation Hub for two years, initially for teams testing productivity-focused technologies such as robotics and automation.