KUALA LUMPUR: Buying of glove makers continued to pick up momentum on Monday, with Top Glove, Hartalega
and Kossan among the top gainers.
At 11.42am, the FBM KLCI was down 3.26 points or 0.19% to 1,752.06. Turnover was 1.40 billion shares valued at RM713mil. There were 323 gainers, 386 losers and 370 counters unchanged.
Top Glove strong earnings in the fourth quarter and upbeat outlook by analysts saw the world's top glove maker jumping 30 sen to RM6.31.
IMB Equities Research has upgraded Top Glove from Hold to Add and raised the target price from RM5.75 to RM6.90 as it expects stronger earnings for 2018.
Hartalega added 23 sen to RM7.71 and its call warrants CX surged 18.5 sen to 41 sen.
Kossan gained 14 sen to RM7.20.
StarBiz reported on Monday rubber glove makers are winning back some love from the market, thanks to China.
Last week Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers Association (Margma) president Denis Low Jau Foo had told StarBiz that the reduced supply of vynil gloves from China was a boon for local manufacturers.
He said total export value of rubber gloves from Malaysia was expected to increase by about RM3bil this year to RM16.2bil. He also said the growth can be sustained and perhaps improved further mainly due to the closure of some vinyl factories in China.
China produced about 160 billion pieces of vinyl gloves per year.
The supply disruption resulting from China’s fight against polluting industries contributed to a surge in demand for rubber gloves produced by Malaysian companies.
Low said the usual growth in terms of quantity of exported gloves has always been 8% to 10%, but this figure has moved up to 15.8% in the first half of 2017.
Limited time offer:
Just RM5 per month.
