Riverstone

Rubber gloves / Riverstone: HSBC notes 1H14 has been challenging for the industry due to rising operating costs from power tariff hikes and water rationing, resulting in slight margin compression for most players. Nevertheless, the house remains positive on the glove sector, and expects share price performance to turnaround in 2H14/2015, as new capacity has been pushed back to end 2014/15 ,alleviating fears of overcapacity , while firm demand should keep utilisation high. Strong demand for nitrile gloves is a positive catalyst for the sector, and is growing in tandem with incremental capacity in the nitrile segment, and has not yet been factored in by the market yet, in HSBC's view. The house remains Overweight on the sector. While HSBC does not cover Riverstone , the stock price has been steadily rising on the back of its new capacity rollout. UOBK has a Buy rating with TP $1.14 , NRA has a Neutral rating with TP $1.01 , and CS (no rating) recently visited the company.