Glove makers rose at midday on Thursday, bucking the cautious market, following news that the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in South Korea had spread.
Investors are expecting demand to pick up for gloves, though there could be a time lag.
At 12.30pm, the world’s biggest glove maker Top Glove rose 12 sen to RM5.42, Kossan added 12 sen also to RM6.70 while Hartalega gained five sen to RM8.34 and Supermax was up 4 sen to RM2.01.
The FBM KLCI was down 2.69 points or 0.15% to 1,746.48. Turnover was 644.50 million shares valued at RM694.26mil. There were 316 gainers, 359 losers and 303 counters unchanged.
Another factor could be that glove makers are beneficiaries of the strong US dollar as all their products are exported. The ringgit continued to lose ground against the US dollar to 3.7030 – the weakest since April 15 — from the previous close of 3.6850.
Reuters reported South Korean President Park Geun-hye has demanded that everything to be done to halt the outbreak which began two weeks ago, brought into the country by a South Korean man returning from a business trip to the Middle East.
Two people have died in South Korea. With 35 cases, South Korea has the most infections outside the Middle East where the disease first appeared in 2012, and where most of the 440 fatalities have been.
About 1,600 people have been quarantined in South Korea, most of them at home or in medical institutions, a health ministry official said.