Bursa Malaysia trading value at record RM9.3bil
PETALING JAYA: Bursa Malaysia broke records as trading value rose to a high of RM9.3bil.
Trading volume appeared to be on the medium to large-capitalised shares this time around at 9.04 billion shares.
Rubber glove makers: Top Glove Corp Bhd
and Hartalega Holdings Bhd continued to make gains.
Both stocks are FBM KLCI constituents. Top Glove rose 20 sen to RM13.30 while Hartalega spiked by RM1.40 to RM12.54.
Hartalega added 8.83 points to the FBM KLCI while Top Glove nudged the index up by 0.97 of a point.
Hartalega gloves
The benchmark FBM KLCI was up, despite wobbly sentiment in the Asian markets, climbing slightly over 1% on a firmer broader market.
Asian markets fell ahead of US President Donald Trump’s press conference yesterday that would reportedly address US-China country relations.
The FBM KLCI was the top performer among Asian indices during yesterday’s trade.
It rose 15.75 point to 1,473.25 at the highest point since March 6 but in the year-to-date period, the index is still down by some 7.27%.
The broader market saw advancers beating decliners 650 to 403 while 363 counters were unchanged. There were 484 counters untraded.
Bloomberg reported that Malaysian stocks entered a bull territory as glove makers extended their record rally.
“The country is home to the world’s biggest glove makers Top Glove and Hartalega, which have surged in recent weeks due to rising demand for protective equipment during the global coronavirus pandemic, ” the wire service reported.
Hartalega is the world’s biggest nitrile glove manufacturer while Top Glove is the world’s biggest rubber glove manufacturer by total capacity.
Other glove makers also attracted attention with Careplus jumping 29 sen to RM1.40 in active trade while Adventa hit limit-up, surging 40 sen to RM1.76.
Market dealers said the trend could be attributed to retailers or hedge funds that are coming in to bump up glove makers despite record valuations.
Petronas Gas added RM1.70 and pushed the index up 4.81 points while Petronas Dagangan’s RM2.20 increase to RM23.48 added 3.74 points. Petronas Chemicals was 11 sen higher at RM6.30 and gave the index a 1.64 point nudge. Dialog Group added 18 sen to RM3.99.
CIMB was among the best performers among the banks, advancing 26 sen to RM3.77, adding 4.8 points.
CIMB was also among the top 10 most actively traded counters on Bursa Malaysia yesterday.
The ringgit strengthened by 0.18% to 4.3457 against the US dollar.
Crude palm oil rose RM26 to RM2,294 per tonne for the third month delivery.
Among the oil palm plantation companies that gained, PPB Group rose 44 sen to RM17.36, IOI Corp added five sen to RM4.55 and KL Kepong gained four sen to RM22.04.
