KUALA LUMPUR, July 20 — Bursa Malaysia continued its bullish momentum driven by strong demand in the healthcare counters especially glove makers.

This is after all four major glove counters, TopGlove, Supermax, Hartalega and Kossan extended their winning streak by dominating the top gainers’ counters at the opening bell.

As at 9.03am, the main index FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 10.71 points higher at 1,607.04 compared with Friday’s close of 1,596.33 as gains in TopGlove and Hartalega counters pushed the composite index up by 10.9 points.

The index opened 11.02 points higher at 1,596.33.

Market breadth was positive with gainers surpassing losers 321 to 97, while 276 counters were unchanged, 1,278 untraded and 19 others suspended.

Total volume stood at 853.99 million units worth RM313.96 million.

An analyst said that Top Glove and Supermax are among the most sought after stocks among foreign investors, even beating US Tesla’s, thus pushing the demand for the stocks higher.

“As Covid-19 especially in the US, shows no signs of slowing down and the number of cases recorded globally is still on an upward momentum, we believe that these glove stocks have yet to reach its peak,” she said.

This is despite the United States’ Customs and Border Protection (US CBP) imposed a detention order on imports from two of its subsidiaries, Top Glove Sdn Bhd and TG Medical Sdn Bhd, placing the companies on its Withhold Release Order (WRO) list.

In addition, more than 65 per cent of medical gloves used by US medical frontliners were produced in Malaysia.

According to Bloomberg, on year to date performance, Top Glove is up 389 per cent, the most on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index, while Supermax Corp has leapt more than 1,000 per cent compared with Tesla’s 259 per cent.

This was attributed to the booming demand of glove due to the Covid-19 pandemic, aided by a short-selling ban in Malaysia till year-end.

As at 9.03am, TopGlove was up RM1.32 to RM24.30, Supermax and Hartalega were up 90 sen to RM18.60 and RM18.00 while Kossan rose 86 sen to RM14.36.

On the heavyweights, the index was in a mixed note as most counters are either untraded or opened lower.

As for actives, tech stocks dominate the counter as DGB, and Lambo were both up half-a-sen to seven sen and 4.5 sen respectively.

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index edged up 101.49 points to 11,373.94, the FBMT 100 Index appreciated 86.64 points to 11,216.85 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index was 160.31 points stronger at 13,159.60.

The FBM 70 rose 156.95 points to 14,209.69 and the FBM ACE was 121.90 points better at 7,612.80.

Sector-wise, the Financial Services Index improved 26.48 points to 13,603.93, the Plantation Index inched up 17.48 points to 6,986.30 and the Industrial Products and Services Index rose 0.84 of-a-point to 139.52. — Bernama