Top Glove Corp, the world's biggest rubber-glove maker, reported lower profits for a fourth successive quarter after being hurt by higher latex prices and a weaker dollar.

Net income tumbled 60 per cent to RM25.6 million (US$8.4 million), or 4.09 sen per share, from RM64.5 million, or an adjusted 10.51 sen, in the three months ended May 31, the Malaysian company said in an exchange filing today.

Revenue dropped 3.7 per cent to RM535.4 million.

The Selangor-based company paid an average 39 per cent more for latex used its gloves in its fiscal third quarter, compared with a year earlier, it said. Over the same period, the dollar was 7.4 per cent weaker. Top Glove prices its products in the US currency.

'Due to an oversupply situation in the glove industry, it is difficult for Top Glove to pass on the rise in costs to its customers in full,' Chairman Lim Wee Chai said in a separate statement. Latex prices have since 'stabilized,' so customers may resume buying, he said.

Rubber futures for November delivery have fallen 2.7 per cent since the end of Top Glove's fiscal third quarter. They fell 0.9 per cent to 379.80 yen a kilogram (US$4,710 a metric ton) on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange at 4:02 p.m. local time.

Latex prices may decline as rubber-producing countries increase production, the company said. In order to mitigate latex cost increases in future, Top Glove has started moving upstream by acquiring land to diversify into rubber plantations.

Its shares fell 1.9 per cent to RM5.25 at 3:02 p.m. in Kuala Lumpur trading after its earnings were released during the midday break, erasing gains over the past two days. The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index rose 0.4 per cent.

The stock has fallen 18 per cent over the past year as demand for medical gloves slowed with fewer global health scares. -- Bloomberg