KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 15 — Rubber glove counters suffered from selling pressure as at mid-morning following news that the US Department of Labour (DOL) had added Malaysian rubber gloves to its latest list of goods produced with forced labour.
At 11.05am, rubber glove giant Top Glove led the fall in the 30 FBM KLCI counters by erasing 11 sen to RM9.37 while Hartalega shed 16 sen to RM18.00.
Other glove-related counters on the broader market also faced a similar fate by dominating the top losers list.
That included Rubberex which shrank 21 sen to RM7.81, Supermax declined 20 sen to RM10.44, Kossan dwindled 13 sen to RM7.85, while Careplus and Comfort Gloves down 11 sen each to RM3.81 and RM4.59, respectively.
Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd, in a note, said the news might also trigger some profit-taking in glove heavyweights today.
At 11.05 am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) contracted 6.87 points, or 0.45 per cent, to 1,516.38 from 1,523.25 at Wednesday’s close.
The market barometer opened 1.81 points easier at 1,521.44.
Market breadth turned negative with losers overtaking gainers 469 to 320, while 445 counters were unchanged, 893 untraded and 24 others suspended.
Total volume stood at 2.78 billion units worth RM2.14 billion.
Most of the heavyweights were in the red, including Petronas Chemicals which trimmed 10 sen to RM5.96, IOI Corp decreased eight sen to RM4.37 and Digi weakened six sen to RM4.04.
The most actively traded stocks were led by Luster Industries, adding one sen to 15 sen, followed by Metronic Global, giving up two sen to eight sen, ES Ceramics, gaining nine sen to 91 sen, Samaiden, elevating 45 sen to 91 sen, while Advance Synergy was half-a-sen easier at 19 sen.
On the index board, the FBM Emas Index reduced 39.11 points to 10,986.55 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index retreated 66.78 points to 13,186.76.
The FBMT 100 Index dropped 40.09 points to 10,799.17, the FBM 70 narrowed 19.72 points to 14,533.06 and the FBM ACE slid 55.63 points to 10,915.66.
The Financial Services Index climbed 2.89 points to 12,453.84, but the Plantation Index dwindled 41.76 points to 6,927.72 and the Industrial Products and Services Index edged down 0.75 of-a-point to 143.51. — Bernama
