KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 — Top Glove’s shares, which hit RM25 mark for the first time, pushed the FBM KLCI to a 6.5-month high of 1,615.26, increasing 8.83 points at noon-break.

The index opened 1.85 points higher at 1,608.28 compared with Monday’s close of 1,606.43, moving between 1,615.31 and 1,601.48 throughout the morning session.

However, market breadth remained negative as losers outpaced gainers 562 to 359, while 410 counters were unchanged, 623 untraded and 22 others suspended.

Total volume stood at 5.01 billion shares worth RM4.11 billion.

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Healthcare counters remained on the uptrend, with Top Glove’s shares ended the morning session RM1 higher at RM25 after hitting its peak of RM25.16.

Hartalega’s shares also hit a new high of RM18.86 before closing the session at RM18.42 or 52 sen higher.

Among others, Supermax rose RM1.56 to RM17.54 and Kossan went up RM1.42 to RM14.12.

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The rally in the rubber glove makers is continuing as Covid-19 cases continued to escalate.

Meanwhile, other sectors — particularly the financial sector — slid following profit-taking activities after yesterday’s rally.

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd economist Adam Mohamed Rahim said the financial sector makes up more than 20 per cent of the total market cap weightage of the FBM KLCI.

“So, investors taking the opportunity to book in profits today,’ he told Bernama.

In addition, an analyst said the FBM KLCI may turn cautious after unemployment rate for May 2020 escalated to 5.3 per cent from 5.0 per cent in April 2020.

The Department of Statistics Malaysia said employed persons declined marginally by 0.3 per cent to 14.89 million persons from -2.0 per cent in the previous month.

“In line with this, an employment-to-population ratio which provides information on the ability of an economy to create employment dropped further by 0.4 percentage points to post 64.4 per cent,” it said.

The number of the labour force rose marginally by 1.8 thousand persons as against April 2020 to record 15.71 million persons.

Oil prices also remained in the red ahead of the oil cartel’s Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee meeting tomorrow.

Others heavyweights, TNB improved 16 sen to RM11.48, PetChem was eight sen higher at RM6.30 and Digi went up five sen to RM4.41.

In contrast, CIMB was six sen lower at RM3.74, Maybank dropped five sen to RM7.84, while RHB Bank and Public Bank lost two sen each to RM5.03 and RM18.50 respectively.

Of the most active, PDZ depreciated 1.5 sen to 22 sen, Careplus went up 40 sen to RM1.89 and MQ rose half-a-sen to nine sen.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index was 67.07 points higher at 11,385.89, the FBMT 100 Index increased 71.76 points to 11,246.81 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index rose appreciated 143.83 points to 13,143.85.

The FBM 70 expanded 131.159 points to 14,139.10 and the FBM ACE added 118.94 points to 7,366.45.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index declined 62.15 points to 13,489.55, the Plantation Index improved 0.40 of-a-point to 6,845.68 and the Industrial Products and Services Index eased 0.06 of-a-point to 138.95. ­— Bernama