KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 18): The fierce selldown in glove stocks did not ease yesterday, pulling them further away from the all-time highs that they hit earlier this month.
The seven glove counters on Bursa have slid more than 20% from their peaks (see chart) since the news flow on the sector turned negative.
The glove bulls were spooked by news that vaccines for Covid-19 would be available for mass production in months. Besides Russia, China is another country that has revealed its success in developing a Covid-19 vaccine.
According to Reuters, China's state-owned newspaper People's Daily reported that China's vaccine specialist CanSino Biologics Inc has won a patent approval from Beijing for its Covid-19 vaccine candidate Ad5-nCOV. It is the first Covid-19 vaccine patent granted by China.
On the home front, adding fuel to the selling is the renewed speculation of the government mulling over a windfall tax on the glove makers.
Nonetheless, the big drop in share prices has prompted some who have missed the boat to wonder if it is an opportune time for bargain hunting.
A foreign fund manager commented that a fair question to ask oneself is which other sector would offer great earnings growth in the next two to three quarters in current economic conditions.
"Even if a vaccine is successfully developed, it does not mean it would be available to the public immediately. Furthermore, there is already a change in lifestyle, rubber glove usage has become part of our daily life. In short, the demand will remain, although it may weaken,” said the fund manager, who viewed that the selling on the glove counters has been overdone.
The heavy selldown has erased a total of RM52.85 billion worth of market capitalisation from the seven glove counters, of which RM49.2 billion was wiped out among the big four glove counters, namely Top Glove Corp Bhd, Hartalega Holdings Bhd, Supermax Corp Bhd and Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd.
Philip Capital Sdn Bhd chief investment officer Ang Kok Heng said "it all depends on the individuals if they believe in the glove story".
"For the time being, the average selling price is still strong. So, I think the glove story is not over yet. But what matters now is how long will this glove story last… things are still hazy and we still don't know where the end of the road is or where the cliff is," he said.
He concurred that the availability of the vaccine has posed downside risks. "The vaccine may, in a big way, disrupt the demand [for rubber gloves] eventually," said Ang. By the same token, he pointed out that the bigger challenge would be the side effects of the vaccine.
Maybank IB Research said the juxtaposition of supernormal profits being generated by the glove sector and the government's extremely challenging fiscal outlook is raising the risk of windfall taxes being imposed on glove manufacturers.
Maybank IB estimated that a 10-percentage-point increase in corporate tax rate to 34% applied to the three glove stocks under coverage — Top Glove, Hartalega and Kossan — would raise an average of RM1 billion per annum for the government over three years from 2020 to 2022.
"Given these three stocks are 70% of the domestic glove sector's capacity, extrapolating to the whole sector would increase average tax revenue take for the government from the windfall levy to RM1.4 billion per annum (peaking in 2021 at about RM2.2 billion)," Maybank IB analyst Anand Pathmakanthan wrote.
However, Top Glove's chairman Tan Sri Dr Lim Wee Chai told The Edge that neither the company nor Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers Association has been consulted about the windfall tax.
Read also: