KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 17): The FBM KLCI trended downward throughout the day on anticipation of limited excitement from Budget 2017.

At the close of trading, the benchmark index settled at the day's low of 1,653.71 points, down 5.26 points or 0.32%.

Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd technical analyst Loui Low Ley Yee said traders expect Budget 2017 to be in "muted mode".

"Traders are having lacklustre interest to trade today, as the upcoming Budget 2017 is expected to be the slower kind of budget announcement as compared to last year," he told theedgemarkets.com.

"Overall market for this week would likely to be stagnant and negatively biased ahead of Friday's presentation by the Prime Minister," he added.

Budget 2017 is scheduled to be tabled in Parliament this Friday.

On Bursa Malaysia today, losers outran gainers by 440 to 322, while total trading volume was 1.26 billion shares worth some RM1.52 billion.

Gainers were led by British American Tobacco (M) Bhd, while the biggest loser was Aeon Credit Service (M) Bhd.

AT Systematization Bhd was the most actively traded counter, with 83.27 million shares traded today.

Reuters reported that Asian shares fell today while the dollar held firm near seven-month high after comments from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen that signalled the need for aggressive steps to rebuild the US economy boosted long-dated bond yields.

On Friday, US stocks surrendered earlier gains to close flat following Yellen's comments that the Fed may need to run a "high-pressure" economy to reverse damage from the global financial crisis that depressed output, reported Reuters.

Currency wise, the ringgit weakened against the US dollar to 4.2182, and against the Singapore dollar to 3.0336 as at 5pm.