KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 8): The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has ceased to be a substantial shareholder of Top Glove Corp Bhd, according to the glove maker’s filing with Bursa Malaysia, after the provident fund disposed of 40 million shares, or a 0.5% direct interest, on Jan 5.

It is worth noting that the filing stated EPF ceased to be a substantial shareholder following a “disposal of 40 million shares (SBL) by Citigroup Nominees (Tempatan) Sdn Bhd”.

SBL, in this case, stands for securities borrowing and lending. This means the provident fund is lending out its Top Glove shares for a fee to investors who intend to short the stock.

A random check on the filings in November and December last year showed EPF made nine share disposals that were labeled as “SBL” transactions. Roughly, these transactions involved 52.74 million shares.  

After the latest transaction on Jan 5, the EPF is left with 392.85 million shares or a 4.9% stake in Top Glove, the filing shows.

Top Glove was a key target when the ban on regulated short selling was lifted on Monday (Jan 4) — the first trading day of the new year.

The world’s largest rubber glove maker plunged to a low of RM5.23 that day, before settling at RM5.50. Its trading volume soared to 347.86 million shares — the highest level seen since end-May 2018.

Nonetheless, Top Glove has managed not only to recoup all losses but to end the first trading week higher at RM6.50 against RM6.12 on Dec 31, as short sellers started covering their positions while some bargain hunting emerged.