KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia sank slightly at Monday's open as there was a muted reaction to the Budget tabled last Friday.
The benchmark FBM KLCI was down 3.28 points at the starting bell to 1,646.71, pinned to a sideways trading channel by the 50-day simple moving average.
RHB Research had predicted that the FBM KLCI would likely trend sideways with an upside bias, given there were no major surprises in Budget 2025 to materially excite or disturb the market rhythm.
It said, however, there was a bullish performance on Wall Street last Friday and the return of net foreign flows to support buying interest, although ongoing uncertainties remained.
"The outlook could be tempered by ongoing concerns about a potential regional conflict in the Middle East, the political dynamics during the US elections countdown (Nov 5) coupled with uncertainty surrounding China's stimulus measures and its economic recovery roadmap," it added in its traders brief.
Another broker, Malacca Securities Research, said it expected some buying in the utilities sector given the green-related initiatives highlighted in Budget 2025.
However, in early Monday trade, the sector was down 0.6% with declines in YTL Power, down four sen to RM3.48, and YTL Corp, shedding four sen to RM2.27.
At the time of writing, Bursa Malaysia's construction and property sectors were also down 1.5% and 1.4% respectively, defying expectations of a rally on the back of property tax relief initiatives.
Meanwhile, the technology sector slid 0.2% despite Wall Street's positive technology performance on Friday.
Nevertheless, Malacca Securities predicted buying interest in the tech sector with increased emphasis and investment in the semiconductor and electrical and electronics sectors.
It added also that there was potential in stocks linked to Johor, Sabah and Sarawak.
In early trade, HeiTech Padu, which announced it had secured the RM892.2mil National integrated Immigration System (NIISe) project, dropped 13 sen to RM4.21.
Sunway Construction fell 10 sen to RM4.40, PIE Industrial slid nine sen to RM5.28 and SAM Engineering shed seven sen to RM4.21.
Of actives, Globetronics rose four sen to 65.5 sen, Cape EMS gained 0.5 sen to 33.5 sen and Datasonic rose 0.5 sen to 44 sen.
