KARACHI - The bulls returned to the stock market on Wednesday after Tuesdays correction as the KSE-100 index stepped further ahead with a gain of 73 points to close at 8,320 points. Rise in international equity markets, continuing foreign interest in telecom, banks, oil sectors and expected issue of Rs 90b TFCs on Aug 27 for settlement of circular debt issue between IPPs, OMCs and refineries played a key role in positive activity at the KSE, said Ahsan Mehanti at Shehzad Chamdia Securities. Off-shore players made a net investment of $ 4.10 million (gross buy $ 7.99 million, gross sell $ 3.89 million) on Wednesday. The equity market kicked-off the day in green zone, gaining 7.99 points and closing the day at 8,319.74 points with a handsome gain of 73.02 points, while the KSE 30 index closed at 8,910.99 points, showing a gain of 94.97 points on Wednesday. Somehow we can say investors confidence has restored up to some extent. Furthermore, international credit rating agencies also improved the outlook of our country, said analyst Bilal Asif. Trading activity was minimal as the ready market volume squeezed to 151.197 million shares as compared to last trading sessions 190.727 million shares. Total trading value of the stock market decreased to Rs 8.817b against Rs 10.711b of last session. Market capitalization stood over Rs 2.441tr as compared to Rs 2.423tr of last session. Out of 359 active symbols at the KSE, at least 170 advanced, 160 declined and the value of the shares of 28 cos remained unchanged. PTC, the running mashing, corrected itself after a bull run but still PTC witnessed greater volumes. NML continued its journey towards Rs50/share as NML hit the upper lock at Rs48/share. While, POL hit the upper quite convincingly. OGDC supported the markets bullish trend as OGDC contributed vital points towards index gain. PTCL remained the volume leader with a healthy turnover of 21.905 million shares on Wednesday, followed by JSCL with 13.545 million shares, NML 10.486 million shares, DGKC 9.531 million shares, Pak Oilfields 7.433 million shares, OGDC 6.593 million shares, AHSL 6.129 million shares, Adamjee Insurance 5.789 million shares, ANL 5.471 million shares, MCB Bank 5.104 million shares namely. Top gainers at the exchange include Unilever Pak, up by Rs39.20/share to close at Rs2,224.20, Wyeth Pak added Rs34.99/share, closing at Rs1,179.99 with a small turnover of only 3 shares, Siemens Pak Engineering gained Rs30.10/share and its value was improved to Rs1,110, Fazal Textile up by Rs12.59/share and closed at Rs392.67, Pak Oilfields gained Rs9.12/share to close at Rs192.29. On the other side, Nestle Pak lost Rs35.37/share to close at Rs1,009.63, Fateh Textile Mills down by Rs27.59/share, closing at Rs600 with the trading of only 1 share, Atlas Battery lost Rs6.32/share and its total value was decreased to Rs154.68, Colgate Palm (SPOT) down by Rs5.49/share and closed at Rs344.69, Al-Ghazi Tractor (SPOT) lost Rs3.84/share to close at Rs192.76.