KUALA LUMPUR (July 22): Top Glove Corp Bhd and Supermax Corp Bhd's share prices rose in Bursa Malaysia morning trade today, while Hartalega Holdings Bhd fell as investors weighed the impact of the Covid-19 Delta variant’s aggressive spread on demand for gloves as personal protective equipment (PPE) to fight against the pandemic.

At the time of writing today, Top Glove’s share price had risen one sen or 0.24% to RM4.17, while Supermax climbed two sen or 0.54% to RM3.71. Hartalega, however, had fallen three sen or 0.38% to RM7.86, while Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd was unchanged at RM3.49.

Yesterday, Top Glove, Supermax, Hartalega and Kossan's share prices closed higher as investors evaluated Covid-19 sentiment against vaccination progress to curb the spread of the pandemic.  

Today, TA Securities Holdings Bhd analysts wrote in a note that Bursa’s Health Care index rose 2.2% yesterday due to the strong performance of the rubber glove manufacturers’ share prices on a robust demand outlook due to the aggressive Delta variant of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The local market should continue trading sideways with downward bias as the highly infectious Delta strain threatens to delay economic reopening timelines globally, but rubber glove stocks should extend their recovery as the demand outlook brightens considerably,” they said.

News reports, quoting the World Health Organization (WHO), reported yesterday that the highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 is expected to become the dominant strain of the virus over the coming months.

It was reported that the WHO said Delta, which was first detected in India, had now been recorded in 124 territories — 13 more than last week — and already accounts for more than three-quarters of sequenced specimens in many major countries.

“It is expected that it will rapidly outcompete other variants and become the dominant circulating lineage over the coming months,” the United Nations (UN) health agency was quoted as saying in its weekly epidemiological update by AFP.