KUALA LUMPUR (March 24): LKL International Bhd rose as much as 40% to 14 sen in morning trades today after the group said it is ready to fulfil the high demand for medical equipment from hospitals in Malaysia and foreign countries, in their battle against Covid-19.

At 10.30am, the hospital bed maker's shares pared some of their gains at 13.5 sen, up 3.5 sen or 35%, bringing the group a market capitalisation of RM53.6 million. The counter saw some 5.61 million shares traded.

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the group’s managing director Lim Kon Lian said it had received numerous requests for essential medical equipment from hospitals in various states across Malaysia, as well as from foreign countries, including Italy, Maldives, Mauritius, Brunei, and Bangladesh.

“This includes an urgent enquiry of 50,000 hospital beds to be supplied within a five-month time frame to one of the export markets, indicating the high-level urgency to expand their capacity,” he said in a statement yesterday.

For the cumulative six-month period ended Oct 31, 2019, LKL's net profit surged four times to RM557,000 from RM141,000 in the year-ago period on the back of higher revenue and higher gross margin derived from better product mix sold. Its revenue rose 16.12% year-on-year to RM20.03 million from RM17.25 million.