KARACHI, April 28: Stocks on Friday crashed from the recent highs, off three percent or 342 points followed by panic selling by leading investors in the ready section amid conflicting reports about the squaring of positions in the matured April settlements in some of the oil giants.

The bulk of the selling was confined to the leading oil shares, notably OGDC, Pakistan Oilfields, Pakistan Petroleum and National Bank, which together hold a weightage of over 50 per cent and dragged the index sharply lower.

Being the last session of the rollover week for the matured April settlements leading investors squared their positions, some of which were highly overbought and sell-off spilled over to the ready counter.

Most of the leading shares in the oil, cement and bank sectors finished with limit-fall, ”amid lower locks” followed by sharp single-session declines.

The KSE 100-share index at one stage plunged by 466 points but the afternoon sessions witnessed modest improvement on buying at the dips on some of the blue chip counters. It finally finished off 341.55 points at 11,342.42, eroding Rs92 billion from the market capital at Rs3.198 trillion.

The breach of crucial benchmark of 12,000 points is significant in more than one ways. On the one hand it has clipped an extra weight from the index and could well prove a launching pad for its onward march to its next target of 13,000, brokers said.

As far as the news from the corporate sector is concerned there still positive as interim accounts could hardly influence the annual performance of any company.

There is, however, a long whispering that the developing situation on the political front could have its toll and shrewd among the punters are already thinking in these terms having in mind their negative fallout on the future share business, some others said.

“There was a confusion since the opening bell as no one was sure about the direction of the market in the backdrop of overnight snap fall,” analysts said adding ”the lead was provided by some of the foreign fund managers who liquidated their long positions in the overvalued oil giants, notably Pakistan Petroleum, Pakistan Oilfields and OGDC followed by leading banks.”

But for some others it was the delayed reaction hastened by below market expectations interim dividend by some of the leading companies, notably MCB, National Bank and some others.

Although minus signs dominated the list under the lead of Unilever Pakistan and Pakistan Oifields, off Rs50 and 30.90, followed by National Refinery, Attock Petroleum, National Bank, Pakistan Refinery, Shell Gas, Shell Pakistan, PSO, and Arif Habib Securities, which suffered sharp fall ranging from Rs10.75 to 18.90. There were many others, which ended amid lower locks.

Bata Pakistan and Siemens Pakistan managed to finish higher by Rs65 and 5.35. Others, which showed modest fall included Shaheen Insurance, Buxly Paints, Clover Pakistan, Berger Paints, and Ghandhara Industries, higher by Rs2.05 to 5.

Trading volume rose to 246m shares from the previous 219m shares as losers held at strong lead over the gainers at 235 to 70, with 28 shares holding on to the last levels.

OGDC came in for active selling and finished lower by Rs5.30 at Rs156.90 on 44m shares followed by PTCL, off Rs2.65 at Rs54.30 on 19m shares, Pakistan Petroleum, easy by Rs7.50 at Rs275 on 16m shares, National Bank, off Rs12.50 at Rs256 on 16m shares, MCB, easy Rs5 at Rs238.40 on 12m shares and Pakistan Oilfields, sharply lower by Rs30.90 on 9m shares.

Other actives were led by Fauji Fertiliser Bin Qasim lower Rs1.60 on 14m shares, Pak PTA, easy by 45 paisa on 12m shares, Lucky Cement, off Rs2.75 on 11m shares and Nishat Mills, off Rs6.40 on 8m shares.

FORWARD COUNTER: OGDC also led the list of actives on this counter, off Rs5.49 at Rs158.61 on 10m shares, Pakistan Petroleum, off Rs7.11 at Rs278 on 10m shares and Pakistan Oilfields, lower Rs7.55 at Rs438.50 on 8m shares.

National Bank followed them, off Rs13.60 at Rs258.55 on 8m shares, and MCB, lower Rs3.60 at Rs242.00 also on 8m shares.

DEFAULTER COS: Shares on this counter also followed the lead of their ready counterparts in the ready section but fell fractionally amid slow trading.

Among the actives, Crescent-Standard Bank and Dandot Cement were prominent. While the former fell by 30 paisa at Rs6 on 0.181m shares, the later rose by 25 paisa at Rs15.25 on 0.109m shares.

DIVIDEND: Siemens Pakistan, second interim at the rate of 300 per cent, first interim of 60 per cent already paid, Security Leasing, interim bonus shares at the rate of 10 per cent.