Range bound trading was witnessed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange in Friday’s session. The KSE100 index went down by 58 points to settle at 45,931.

The market closed slightly in the positive however after the Friday break it receded into the red. Volumes continued to show a decline hinting that the index might take a clear direction in the coming week.

The index continues to hover at these levels testing a technical barrier of 46,000 before receding. Investors are hopeful that the index will be able to cross that mark in the coming week and test new highs. Positive news on the economic front and a further curtailment of Covid-19 cases could be just the trigger that the PSX requires to hit new highs.

President-elect Biden just announced a new $1.9 million stimulus to help boost the Coronavirus response. A new U.S. economic stimulus also boosted sentiments on Wall Street. Oil remained mixed as a new Chinese lockdown raised question of an economic recovery from the Covid-19 impact.

At the closing bell 157 companies had advanced with 206 closing in the red. 17 scrips remained unchanged.

Market participation for the KSE100 Index decreased to 222M from 286M in the previous session (-23% on d/d basis). Major contribution to total market volume came from HUMNL, POWER and FFBL combined for 135M shares out of the total market volume of 531M shares.