Stocks have witnessed a fading rally as Pakistan stock exchange benchmark kse-100 index ends flat in a range bound session. The KSE-100 Index started the trading session on a positive note, gaining 197 points to touch its intraday high at 33,501.30. However, it reversed and shed early gains to record its intraday low at 33,159.05. The index finally closed flat and lost 36.47 points to clock at at 33,267.69. In the early trading hours, the index surge was backed by positive sentiments on the hopes of revival of economic activity. Investors pinned their hopes on partial lifting of lockdown announced by the government. However, selling pressure and uncertainty continues to keep investors away from the market. Foreign investors offloaded $2million worth of equities ramping up the pressure on the stocks. In this week foreign investors offloaded a total of $17.8 million equities. Of the 95 traded companies in the KSE100 Index, 38 closed up 53 closed down, while 4 remained unchanged. Total volume traded for the index was 62.92 million shares.All Share Volume decreased by 88.01 Million to 88.02 Million Shares. Market Cap increased by Rs.9.12 Billion.Total trades decreased by 40,895 to 45,299, while the total Value Traded decreased by 3.67 Billion to Rs.3.82 Billion. The overall market volumes declined from 175.8 million in the previous session to 88.0 million (-50pc). Average traded value also declined by 51pc, from $46.8 million to $23.9 million. Unity Foods Limited (UNITY +3.23pc), Hascol Petroleum Limited (HASCOL -0.07pc) and Maple Leaf Cement Factory Limited (MLCF +0.12pc) led the volume chart, exchanging 9.29 million, 5.82 million and 5.54 million shares, respectively. Sector-wise, the index was let down by Commercial Banks with 50 points, Fertilizer with 29 points, Automobile Assembler with 12 points, Cement with 11 points and Chemical with 11 points. Among the companies, most points taken off the index was byLucky Cement Limited which stripped the index of 17 points followed by United Bank Limited with 13 points, ICI Pakistan Limited with 12 points, ENGRO with 11 points and HabibBank Limited with 10 points. Sectors that tried to add value to index were Oil & Gas Marketing Companies with 32 points, Power Generation & Distribution with 25 points, Food & Personal Care Products with 20 points, Tobacco with 12 points and Paper & Board with 2 points. Companies that lifted the index were Hub Power Company Limited which contributed 27 points followed by NESTLE with 26 points, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited with 19 points, Pakistan Tobacco Company Limited with 12 points and Pakistan State Oil with 6 points. Global Markets Global stocks edged higher on Friday after getting a boost from signs relations between Washington and Beijing are warming, as U.S. and Chinese trade representatives agreed to strengthen their cooperation in implementing the “phase 1” trade deal. The news brought a sigh of relief, following growing concerns about increasing tensions between the U.S. and China – two of the largest economies in the world. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 is closed Friday because of the VE Day holiday, which marks 75 years since gained 1.3%, while France’s CAC 40 was around 1.01% higher. In Asia, stock markets also rebounded. In Japan, stocks led gains among the region’s major markets, with the Nikkei 225 jumping 2.56% to close at 20,179.09 as shares of index heavyweights Fast Retailingand Softbank Group each rose more than 3%. South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.89% to close at 1,945.82. Mainland Chinese stocks rose on the day with the Shanghai composite up 0.83% to about 2,895.34.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng indexalso added 1.04%, as of its final hour of trading. Stocks rose Friday at Wall Street even after the ugliest monthly jobs report ever as investors bet the worst of the coronavirus and its impact on the economy has passed.The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 241 points higher, or 1%. The S&P 500 gained 0.8% while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.5%. The major averages were headed for their first weekly gains in three. But, U.S The Labor Department said a record 20.5 million jobs were lost last month, adding the unemployment rate jumped to 14.7% from just 4.4%. Both the spike in job losses and the unemployment-rate surge are post-World War II records. To be sure, neither print was as bad as feared. The data reveled the gravity of the economic crisis as covid-19 continues to wreak havoc with U.S economy.