KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 22): Healthcare stocks dipped on Tuesday (Feb 22) morning as investors took profit amid the overall weak market sentiment.

At 11.09am, Top Glove Corp Bhd slipped three sen to RM2.03; Hartalega Holdings Bhd declined by nine sen to RM4.78; Supermax Corp Bhd lost four sen to RM1.10; Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd shed one sen to RM1.73.

Their smaller glove peers Careplus Group Bhd were also down one sen to 85.5 sen; Rubberex Corp (M) Bhd decreased by one sen to 44.5 sen; Comfort Gloves Bhd dropped by 2.5 sen to 80.5 sen.

Hospital players such as IHH Healthcare Bhd and KPJ Healthcare Bhd were also down four sen and two sen respectively, at RM6.35 and RM1.05.

Pharmaceutical players Duopharma Biotech Bhd and Apex Healthcare Bhd were also on a declining trend. Duopharma Biotech and Apex Healthcare slipped four sen respectively, to RM1.54 and RM2.56.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng said that the fall in healthcare stocks on Tuesday morning was mainly due to foreign selling, as the overall market is still overbought.

“There will be a strong support at 1,570. If the market can hold at this position, it is still okay,” he told theedgemarkets.com.

He opined that most stocks were on the downtrend on Tuesday morning, dragged by weak market sentiment.

Thong also noted healthcare stocks, which were among short-term play earlier, might continue to see profit taking, but the drop might not be steep.

The negative factors, according to him, were mainly due to declining glove average selling price amid oversupply.