Wuhan virus puts medical plays in spotlight

WITH the outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus evoking memories of 2003's Sars epidemic, investors are looking to pick Singapore-listed medical plays as regional benchmarks recovered from Tuesday's sell-off.

Three of them - pennies Medtecs International, AsiaMedic Limited and Healthway Medical - accounted for close to a fifth of Wednesday's trading volume of two billion securities or 70 per cent above the 2019 daily average. Total turnover was S$1.09 billion, in line with last year's daily average.

Medtecs was the bourse's most active counter, adding 0.6 Singapore cent or 6.5 per cent to 9.8 Singapore cents on 166.6 million shares traded. The provider of healthcare products and hospital services has surged 88 per cent from Jan 20's close of 5.2 Singapore cent…