KUALA LUMPUR (July 21): Malaysian stocks closed higher today as bargain hunters capitalised on yesterday's decline, sparking a late-afternoon rebound.

The benchmark FBM KLCI closed up 0.2% or 3.53 points to 1,759.16, led by gains in small-cap, finance, mining and property stocks.

The market traded within a range of 6.76 points between an intra-day high of 1,759.16 and a low of 1,752.40 during the session.

Turnover climbed to 1.86 billion shares valued at RM1.78 billion. Gainers led losers at 436 to 384 losers, while 385 counters remained unchanged.

Top gainers were TAHPS Group Bhd, British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Bhd and Pentamaster Corp Bhd, while Nestle (Malaysia) Bhd, United Plantations Bhd and Ajinomoto (Malaysia) Bhd were the biggest losers on Bursa Malaysia today.

The most actively traded stocks were MLabs Systems Bhd, Managepay Systems Bhd and Globaltec Formation Bhd.

According to Stephen Soo, senior technical analyst at TA Securities Holdings Bhd, the market today rose on late afternoon bargain hunting as investors expect it to rebound next week.

He expects today's positive momentum in the market to continue next week, overcoming bottom resistance to trade between the 1,778 and 1,782 levels.

"The overall market was quite weak this week in line with the tone over the past week. Blue chips do not seem to be going anywhere," he told theedgemarkets.com.

Across Asia, equities fell for the first time in 10 days as investors chose to take some profit off the table amid an investigation into the US president that may stall his economic agenda, according to Bloomberg.

The US Federal Reserve's meeting on July 26 also kept some investors on the sidelines ahead of the weekend after the European Central Bank deferred the decision on policy normalization until later this year.

Japan's Nikkei, which has gained about 5% in the past two weeks, eased 0.2%, Hang Seng index shed 0.1% and Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.2%. South Korea's Kospi, however, closed up 0.3% for the day.