KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 28): Malaysian stocks closed higher today, supported by late window-dressing activities with positive sentiment driven partially by gains seen on Wall Street.

The benchmark FBM KLCI was trading in the range of 1,684.47 to 1,694.08 points during the day, before closing up 1.35 points or 0.08% at 1,692.07 points.

MISC Bhd and PPB Group Bhd led gainers among the index's component stocks, rising 3.95% and 2.91% respectively.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice president of research Vincent Lau attributed the positive performance of the local bourse to fund managers' year-end window-dressing activities.

"The rebound in US stocks over the past two trading days has also helped support investor sentiment here," he told theedgemarkets.com.

Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose another 260.37 points or 1.14% to add to its record daily point gain of over 1,000 points from the day before.

Across Bursa Malaysia, gainers outstripped decliners at 385 versus 343, with 395 counters remaining unchanged. However, trading volume fell to 1.42 billion shares worth RM1.1 billion compared with yesterday's 1.61 billion shares worth RM1.21 billion.

Property and real estate investment trust (REIT) indices were the better performers today, up 1.12% and 1.3% respectively at market close.

Regional markets closed mixed. South Korea's Kospi finished 0.62% higher, but Japan's Nikkei 225 slid 0.31%. In China, the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index closed 0.44% up, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index ended the day a marginal 0.1% higher.

Reuters reported that while US stocks roared back, all three US major indices remain down more than 9% for December following losses earlier in the month, when factors including concerns over the US-China trade war, slowing global growth and wariness toward the US Federal Reserve's tightening cycle took a heavy toll.