43,030 -777 (-1.8%)
No it was not as bad as it looks. Normally such a decline would have been associated with major selling of Mutual Funds or 'foreigners'. But no such thing took place. 'Foreigners' are almost done with their selling at PSX on account of exclusion of Pakistan from MSCI EM Index. And Mutual Funds lately do not appear to be facing much redemption pressure.
So this drop of ominous looking number is primarily because of absence of buying interest in view of next week being roll-over week and also general trend being weak However, there was some more than usual selling by 'foreigners' in the banking sector. For the last few trading sessions I am noticing some selling pressure in 'Banks' from foreigners after the FATF meeting. Also the fact that the 'banking' sector has been performing better on account of better earning and yield - so that's where liquidity is and buying, hence 'foreigners' were able to executive some trades there.
Insurance companies had been major buyers in the market a couple of years ago. Last year their performance had been subdued. Year to date as well they hardly mattered. But in recent very weak market conditions they appear to be buying into the market.
On a weekly basis, the KSE 100 Index dropped by 1.43%. That was less than last week's drop of 2% - if that is some consolation.