Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 12): Bursa Malaysia’s Heath Care index rose the most in percentage terms on Friday (Nov 12) among the bourse gauges as rubber glove makers’ share prices jumped, possibly after news reports quoting Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah indicated that Malaysia reported on Thursday 48 new Covid-19 cases involving the Delta variant of the coronavirus which causes the pandemic.

Gloves are deemed a crucial personal protective equipment to curb the spread of Covid-19 infections.

At Bursa’s 12.30pm break on Friday, the Health Care index, which tracks share prices of companies including glove makers, hospital operators and pharmaceutical firms, had risen 34.99 points or 1.52% to 2,342.94 as share prices of glove manufacturers including Top Glove Corp Bhd and Hartalega Holdings Bhd went up.

Top Glove’s share price settled up 12 sen or 5.22% at RM2.42, while Hartalega was 14 sen or 2.51% better at RM5.71.

Meanwhile, Supermax Corp Bhd gained 10 sen or 5.78% to RM1.83, while Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd increased three sen or 1.47% to RM2.07.

On Thursday,  Bernama, quoting Dr Noor Hisham, reported that out of the 48 new cases of the Delta variant of concern (VOC) reported on the same day, 34 cases were detected in Penang, 12 in Pahang and two in Perlis through continued studies by the Integrative Pharmacogenomics Institute (iPROMISE–UiTM).

“This brought the cumulative [number of] cases of infections by the SARS-CoV-2 virus categorised as VOCs and variants of interest (VOIs) to 3,830.

“Of the number detected, 3,810 cases were VOCs and 20 cases were VOIs. Overall for VOCs, there were 3,570 cases of the Delta variant, 226 cases of the Beta variant and 14 cases of the Alpha variant so far,” Dr Noor Hisham was quoted as saying in a statement on Thursday.

Edited ByChong Jin Hun
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