Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (May 6): While investors are weighing the resurgence in the number of Covid-19 cases and the vaccine roll-out, Supermax Corp Bhd’s remarks on current spot prices of rubber gloves being on a decline and more intensive competition have added another dosage of skepticism about the industry.

Lower average selling prices (ASPs) would mean thinner margins moving forward for the glove makers. 

This brought the glove stocks on Bursa Malaysia into the red this morning. 

As at 11.20am, leading the top losers’ list was Supermax, which had declared a 13 sen dividend per share, plunging 10.05% or 56 sen to RM5.01. It hit a low of RM4.86. 

Hartalega Holdings Bhd, the second top loser, slipped 4.58% or 45 sen to RM9.38, with 6.18 million shares traded. Its market capitalisation fell to RM32.2 billion.

Top Glove Corp Bhd, which was still in the midst of resolving the export ban imposed by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), saw its share price went down 3.95% or 21 sen to RM5.15, with a market value of RM42.02 billion.

Careplus Group Bhd slumped 5.28% or 13 sen to RM2.33, with some 52.18 million shares traded. Comfort Gloves Bhd was 6.53% or 16 sen lower at RM2.29, while Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd slipped 19 sen or 4.55% to RM3.99, valuing the group at RM10.23 billion.

Supermax’s RM1 billion quarterly profit, which was 5.2% lower versus RM1.06 billion for the immediate preceding quarter, did not help to boost the market sentiment, given that a whopping net profit was expected by the market. 

When commenting on the prospects, Supermax noted that glove spot prices had shown a downward trend, saying that spot market prices were lower than contracted prices.

This came in as more new capacities were available in the market due to the entry of new players and aggressive capacity expansion among existing manufacturers, said Supermax.

The resurgence of Covid-19 cases globally this time round did not fuel a strong rally, which was witnessed last year, among the glove counters so far. Analysts noted many countries are stepping up efforts on vaccination, bringing hope that the pandemic will be contained soon.

Malaysia’s daily new Covid-19 cases jumped to 3,744 yesterday, marking the second consecutive day of the figure staying above the 3,000 mark. This brought the country's total cases to date to 424,376.

Meanwhile, the national opt-in programme for the Astrazeneca vaccine started yesterday as more people turned up to receive their Covid-19 jabs at vaccination centres in the Klang Valley.

Edited ByKathy Fong
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