KUALA LUMPUR (April 26): The renewed interest in rubber glove counters lent support to the FBM KLCI, which gained 0.94% or 15.04 points today to close at 1,623.47.

The three rubber glove-related component stocks, namely Top Glove Corp Bhd, Hartalega Holdings Bhd and Supermax Corp Bhd, continued to climb higher today. 

Supermax was up 5.55% or 33 sen at RM6.28, while Hartalega closed 3.71% or 40 sen up at RM11.18, and Top Glove Corp Bhd was 2.97% or 17 sen higher at RM5.90.

Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd, which is not a KLCI component stock, climbed the most today among the big four glove makers. The stock shot up 8.28% or 36 sen to RM4.71 with 37.63 million shares traded. 

Another glove counter that hogged the limelight is Careplus Group Bhd, which was the local bourse’s top value gainer today. Careplus finished 22.67% or 51 sen higher at RM2.76 with 170.37 million shares traded. 

Digi.Com Bhd also helped to lift the benchmark index today. The telco gained 3.82% or 16 sen to RM4.35 with 2.9 million shares changing hands.  

The Health Care Index, which includes rubber glove counters, outperformed the FBM KLCI today, rising by 3.1% or 101.56 points to 3,382.38.

Across the board, trading volume expanded to 8.3 billion shares worth RM5.59 billion today compared with 6.55 billion shares worth RM4.98 billion last Friday (April 23). 

Market breadth was positive today, with 577 counters showing gains versus the 410 that have gone unchanged and the 560 that displayed declines today.

The top-performing indices today were the Health Care, FBM ACE and FBM Hijrah indices. The ACE Market Index went up by 2.47% or 214.87 points to 8,900.92, whereas the Hijrah Index, which is made up of Shariah-compliant stocks, was up 1.4% or 195.55 points at 14,168.87.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd head of research Loui Low commented that the renewed interest in the glove stocks was in tandem with the continued surge in Covid-19 infection numbers in some countries, for instance, India and Brazil.

However, Low said the current rally on glove counters might not be sustainable as more vaccine shots are administered globally. 

“But if you look at the countries that are being vaccinated, they are quite alright; the rise in cases is still quite manageable. Hence, we believe that the recent rally might hit some road bumps ahead,” he added. 

“The risk appetite for the recovery plays may dampen for the time being. But once the cases are subsiding, then people will move back into recovery plays. It depends on when and how these Covid-19 cases are resolved,” he noted.

Top actively traded stocks were Minda Global Bhd with 251.16 million shares traded, Focus Dynamics Group Bhd and AT Systematization Bhd.

The top value gainers today were Nestle (Malaysia) Bhd, Transocean Holdings Bhd and Careplus Group Bhd. Leading the top losers today were ViTrox Corp Bhd, Petronas Gas Bhd and KESM Industries Bhd.

Elsewhere in the region, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.43% or 125.92 points to 28,952.83, the Shanghai Composite closed 0.95% or 33 points lower at 3,441.17. Over in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 was 0.36% or 105.6 points higher at 29,126.23, while in South Korea, the Kospi added 0.99% or 31.43 points at 3,217.53.