Stock mania over rubber glove makers outpacing even Tesla
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Top Glove's executive chairman Lim Wee Chai has seen a boom in glove demand due to the coronavirus pandemic.
PHOTO: TOP GLOVE CORPORATION
KUALA LUMPUR • A relatively low-tech stock trade is making Tesla's dizzying rally look like an under-performance.
In South-east Asia, makers of rubber gloves are attracting more investor fervour than even Mr Elon Musk's electric cars and flame throwers.
Top Glove Corporation - dual-listed in Singapore and Malaysia - is up 389 per cent this year in Kuala Lumpur, the most on the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index, while Supermax Corporation has leapt more than 1,000 per cent, compared with Tesla's 259 per cent.
That is due to the boom in glove demand thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, aided by a short-selling ban in Malaysia till the year end.
The meteoric rise has been unprecedented by Malaysian standards, with the top three glove makers adding about RM109 billion (S$35.6 billion) in combined market value this year.
More than $1 of every $10 invested in the nation's stock market right now is a bet on gloves - a feat that makes the South-east Asian nation a play on global hygiene, much like South Korea and Taiwan are for semiconductors.
Top Glove resumed its rally last Friday even after the US moved to block imports from two of its units.
"The rally in glove makers reminds many of Tesla, but the sector's earnings outlook is more certain than that of Tesla," said Mr Ross Cameron, a fund manager at Northcape Capital, which oversees about US$7 billion (S$9.7 billion) in assets globally.
The short-selling ban has had a minor contribution to the rally while "we expect the sector to report significantly more than 100 per cent earnings growth next year", he said.
Fund managers at Northcape and Samsung Asset Management have increased their bets on the sector this year, saying the shift in glove demand is structural and many market participants are still behind the curve.
Still, a faster-than-expected development of a vaccine to treat Covid-19 risks putting the brakes on the spectacular rally in glove makers' shares.
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1,000%
Gains made by Supermax Corporation in the stock market this year, while Top Glove Corporation, another Malaysian glove manufacturer, is up 389 per cent. Electric carmaker Tesla has gained 259 per cent.
The US Customs and Border Patrol has placed a detention order on disposable gloves made by Top Glove. Top Glove said in a statement last Thursday that the issue may be linked to foreign labour and it is reaching out to US Customs to seek to resolve the matter within two weeks.
Fund managers and analysts said the company could still ship its gloves to the US using other units. Also, any cancellation of orders would be offset by demand from other countries due to the acute shortage.
For now, the order books have swelled, glove prices have skyrocketed and companies are aggressively expanding their capacity to meet orders.
BLOOMBERG
