KARACHI: Fall in global oil prices took its toll on the stock market, which lost 362 points, or 0.73 per cent, to close at 49,392.44.

The market opened with a steep fall of 200 points, but managed to recoup almost all of the losses and even step in the green for a while.

But all hell broke loose in the last 30 minutes of trading when the benchmark KSE-100 index spiralled downwards by 500 points. However, a last-minute recovery helped index recoup part of the losses.

The West Texas Intermediate benchmark crawled under $50 a barrel for the first time since December. The fall, in concert with the global equities, came after US crude inventories climbed for a ninth straight week to a record high, and renewed concerns about a supply glut.

In a resultant panic selling, investors opted to dump their positions in the heavyweight oil and gas stocks. Oil and Gas Development Company fell 2.3pc, Pakistan State Oil 2.5pc, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines 4.3pc, Pakistan Petroleum 1.5pc and Pakistan Oilfields 2pc; together, they eroded 286 points from the index.

However, MSCI favourites Lucky Cement which rose 1.4pc, Habib Bank 0.8pc, United Bank 0.7pc and Engro Corporation 0.9pc cushioned the fall by 92 points.

The other major issue that dented investor sentiment was the increase in haircut and value-at-risk (VaR) margins along with the reduction in margin eligible securities in margin trading system as collateral. It drained the market of liquidity as small investors withdrew in haste.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation commented that the stocks closed bearish amid concerns over the outcome of regulatory oversight over non-compliance of brokerage firms.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2017