KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 24): The FBM KLCI is expected to trade range bound today as post Budget 2017 the market is stilll left without much fresh lead given the measures announced appear to be a continuation without any new leads.

The dollar rose to its highest since early February against a basket of currencies on Friday as investors increased bets on higher U.S. interest rates, while a measure of world stocks posted its first weekly gain in four weeks despite some soft U.S. corporate results, according to Reuters.

On Wall Street, energy and healthcare stocks weighed on the S&P 500 and Dow, but Microsoft touching an all-time high moved the Nasdaq to positive territory. A potential merger between AT&T and Time Warner lifted the latter's shares to their highest in 15 years, it said.

AllianceDBS IB in a review of Budget 2017 said that it had  expected, the fiscal allocation in Budget 2017 appeared tight, leaving little room for new growth-boosting policies, as the market would have expected.

“Budget 2017 represents the government’s challenge to consolidate public finances whilst supporting economic growth. Government’s policies were limited due to fiscal constraints.

“The policies appear to be a continuation of existing measures, rather than introducing fresh consumption boosting initiatives,” it said.

Based on corporate announcements and news flow last Friday, stocks in focus today may include: Multi-Usage Holdings Bhd, Econpile Holdings Bhd, Pesona Metro Holdings Bhd and Sinotop Holdings Bhd.