KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 16): Top Glove Corp Bhd shares rose as much as 46 sen or 4.1% to RM11.68 so far today after the company said yesterday the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Retirement Fund (Inc) acquired Top Glove shares last week. 

Retirement Fund (Inc) is also known as Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan) (KWAP). Meanwhile, anticipation that Top Glove will be included in the FBM KLCI might have also led to Top Glove's share price rise today.

Yesterday, Top Glove said in statements to Bursa Malaysia that the EPF had on Wednesday (Oct 10) acquired 2.22 million shares, which raised the EPF's Top Glove stake to 93.94 million shares or 7.35%.

On KWAP, Top Glove said KWAP had on Thursday (Oct 11) acquired a total of 17,600 shares in two tranches of 77,700 and 39,900 units respectively. After the acquisition, KWAP owned 69.17 million shares or 5.412% in Top Glove, according to the rubber glove manufacturer.

Today, Top Glove shares were traded at RM11.52 at 10:51am as Bursa Malaysia's top gainer. Top Glove saw 2.17 million shares transacted.

On Friday (Oct 12), Maybank Investment Bank Bhd said Top Glove may be included into the 30-stock KLCI. 

"Next review for the FBM KLCI constituents will be based on the closing price on 26th Nov with the constituent changes to take effect on 24 Dec, we estimate. 

"As per the closing price yesterday (Oct 11), we think Telekom Malaysia (TM MK, HOLD) could be dropped out of the FBM KLCI while the potential replacements could be Top Glove (market cap: RM13.7b) and F&N Holdings (FNH MK, Not rated; market cap: RM13.07b)," Maybank Investment said.