KARACHI - The stocks led by the energy and banking sectors closed on Wednesday at their highest level of the year, with interest from foreigners also an influence. The Karachi Stock Exchanges benchmark 100-share index ended or 109.40 points (1.25 per cent) higher at 8,878.64, the highest closing of the year, after reaching 8,939.75 at one point. The hallmark of present bullish wave can be attributed to healthy volumes, which may be a consequence of continuous inflow of foreign investment towards the stock market. Offshore investors made a net investment of $ 15.1 million on Wednesday, (gross buy of $ 17.81 million, gross sell of US$ 2.71 million). Intense buying was a result of continued trading in oil, banks and fertilizers sectors. Meanwhile, NWFP oil discovery by OGDCL and rise in local urea prices/offtake played a catalyst role in positive activity, said market expert Ahsan Mehanti. The index is about to reach the 9,000 points height sooner or later as it is not far away. On daily basis, market is striving hard to reach the 9,000 level but intra-day correction has restricted market gains. The index was positive in the opening with a gain of 100.57 points and like the past few sessions, index maintained the upward movement. Meanwhile, the KSE-30 index closed at 9,553.10 points with a gain of 107.08 points. Trading activity was minimal as compared to the last trading session. The ready market volume squeezed to 257.637 million shares as compared to last trading sessions 306.133 million shares. Total trading value of the stock exchange decreased to Rs 14.519b against last sessions Rs 20.172b. Market capitalization further increased to Rs 2.588tr as compared to Rs 2.559tr, showing a solid gain of Rs 29b in just one day. Out of 379 active stocks at the KSE, as many as 200 gained value, 160 lost and the worth of the shares of 19 cos remained unchanged. Banking sector leading the bullish sentiment along with E&P stocks played its role to support the market. UBL, NBP, ABL and HBL moving upwards in a fast and furious manner but on the contrary the speed limit of MCB was quite limited after such splendid sprint. NBP, the sleeping beauty, awaked after a long time and start moving upwards. PTC hit the lower cap after stayed at the same level of Rs20-22 for quite some time. After a long time, Bank Al-Falah was crowned as the volume leader with a healthy turnover of 32.071 million shares on Wednesday, followed by OGDC with 20.488m shares, Pak PTA 20.071 million shares, NBP 14.382 million shares, AHSL 13.493 millions shares, JSCL 11.760m shares, DGKC 10.838m shares, PTCL 9.111m shares, PPL 8.351m shares, Lucky Cement 7.987m shares, NIB Bank 7.875m shares namely. Prominent gainers at the market include Bata Pak, up by Rs15/share to close at Rs900, Pak Services added Rs8/share, closing at Rs225 with the trading of only 2 shares, Engro Chemicals gained Rs7.33/share and closed at Rs154.09, Clariant Pak up by Rs7.10/share and its value was improved to Rs151.84, Services Industries gained Rs6.98/share to close at Rs146.71. On the other side, Rafhan Maize lost Rs48/share to close at Rs1,452 with a small turnover of only 10 shares, Nestle Pak down by Rs29.10/share and its total value was decreased to Rs1,070.90, Wyeth Pak lost Rs20.60/share and closed at Rs1,188, Sanofi-Aventis down by Rs8.52/share, closing at Rs177.43, Shezan International lost Rs4.82/share to close at Rs139.06.