KARACHI - Bears took over stock market Wednesday on banking and oil stocks led decline. The benchmark 100-share index shed 171.17 points to close at 39615.76 points.

Volatility prevailed in the market as the index, after hitting an intra-day high of 47 points and intra-day low of 193 points, finally closed in the red zone.

PSMC (up 0.7%) in the automobile sector extended its previous day gains on the back of the automobile assembler increasing prices by 3% amid appreciating Yen prices. OGDC (down 1.74%), PPL (1.49%) and POL (1.77%) in the E&P sector remained under pressure throughout the day to close in the red zone, as crude oil prices declined to trade below $40 per barrel. Moreover, investor interest was seen in chemical sector on the back of declining crude oil prices. Major gainers of the aforementioned sector were BERG (up 3.97%) and AKZO (1.95%), stated analyst Nabeel Haroon at JS Global.

Volumes increased by 1% to 227m shares whereas value decreased by 15% to Rs10.6b/$101m. HBL and OGDC contributed 60 points to yesterday’s fall while DCL was the volume leader with approximately 22m shares traded.

Declining international crude prices led local stocks to decrease, with POL, PPL and OGDC declining by 1.3%-1.8%. Interest was seen in engineering sector as CSAP closed up by 0.4% while ISL and ASTL gained 4.9% and 3.9% respectively, said dealers at sales desk Topline brokerage.