KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 3): The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is continuing its selling spree in Top Glove Corp Bhd disposing of another 12.83 million shares on Nov 30 after selling 5.84 million shares on Nov 27.

The retirement fund earlier sold 10 million Top Glove shares on Nov 26.

It started to trim its stake in the world's largest rubber glove maker towards the end of November, just two months after it re-emerged as a substantial shareholder on Sept 21 with a 5.05% stake which it later then raised to 6.64% or 534.31 million shares as of Nov 20.

Since then the fund has been trimming its stake in Top Glove every single day. Following the latest disposal announced in a filing today, the EPF is now left with 466.16 million shares or a 5.83% stake in the glove manufacturer.

However, there was no filing at the time of writing to show that Top Glove had bought back its shares today, after two consecutive days of share buybacks by the company amounting to a total of RM160.8 million.

Top Glove had been buying back its shares since September, a noticeable trend that has now resulted in the company having forked out a whopping RM1.28 billion. In September it spent RM354.74 million whereas in November it spent RM802.55 million.

Top Glove’s share price today recovered from yesterday’s losses which took a dip after the Human Resources Ministry said it had opened 19 investigation papers into six subsidiaries of Top Glove. The Ministry said enforcement operations found that the firms did not comply with the minimum standards for workers housing and amenities.

The stock, which has skyrocketed from RM1.55 earlier in the year thanks to Covid-19-driven demand for gloves, closed 10 sen higher at RM6.78, giving it a market capitalisation of RM55.57 billion.