The RM40bil Pemerkasa Plus stimulus package aims to help mitigate the economic impact of the two-week total lockdown coming into effect on Tuesday.
Also spurring on trading, investors are repositioning their portfolios in light of the lockdown that will see the operations of non-essential businesses put on hold.
"Investors may see buying interest in essential sectors that are able to operate during the lockdown," said Malacca Securities Research.
At 12.30pm, the key index was down 2.88 points to 1,580.67. There remained a high volume of trading as investors took advantage of the ongoing market volatility.
The selling pressure on financial stocks continued. Maybank lost four sen to RM8.14, Public Bank falling two sen to RM4.19 and Hong Leong Bank dropping 20 sen to RM18.20.
Glove counters were also in the red with Top Glove dropping 10 sen to RM5.08 and Hartalega
sliding nine sen to RM8.91.Meanwhile, Petronas Chemicals lost five sen to RM8 and Tenaga Nasional dipped two sen to RM9.93.
On the broader market, Serba Dinamik
topped the most actives list with a whopping 648.44 million shares exchanging hands. The share dropped 25.5 sen to 87.5 sen.Other leading actives were UCrest down 0.5 sen to 43 sen and Focus up 0.5 sen to five sen.
In Asian markets, equities were slightly lower amid a lack of fresh leads as the US market was closed overnight for a national holiday.
Investors are also taking pause ahead of more US economic data that will shed light on the pace of the global recovery.
Japan's Nikkei fell 0.4% and Sout Korea's Kospi gained 0.5%.
In China, the main index was down 0.1%, Hong Kong's Hang rose 0.5% and Australia's ASX200 dipped 0.1%.