KUALA LUMPUR: Shares of Hartalega Holdings Bhd fell in late afternoon trade on Tuesday despite strong record earnings as investors worried about weaker average selling prices in the second half of this year.

       At 4.19pm, it was down 28 sen to RM6.75. There were 20.96 million shares done at prices ranging from RM6.64 to RM7.08.

       The FBM KLCI was up 2.61 points or 0.17% to 1,495.61. Turnover was 3.69 billion shares valued at RM2.31bil. There were 400 gainers, 545 losers and 420 counters unchanged.

       Its net profit for the first quarter ended June 30, 2021, was a record-high RM2.26bil, a nine-fold increase over RM219.72mil a year.

       Revenue for the current quarter was RM3.9bil, a 324.2% increase from RM920.09mil a year ago.

       When compared with the preceding quarter, its revenue rose 69.1% due to higher sales volume as well as an increase in average selling price (ASP).

       But what worried investors were Hartalega CEO Kuan Mun Leong’s comments that the average selling prices of gloves have been declining from their peak moving into the second half of the year.

       However, global demand remains heightened as new waves of cases with Covid-19 variants are affecting countries worldwide.