Pakistan Stock Exchange witnessed a volatile trading session on the last trading day of the week as equity Investors remained cautious ahead of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) announcement, which was due later on the day. On Friday, the benchmark kse-100 gained 66.98 points by the session’s closing to clock at 41,266 index level. On Friday the kse-100 index oscillated between negative and positive territory, as market continued to speculate over upcoming FATF decision and reacted to the corporate earnings season. The sentiments continues to show some resilience, following the earnings announcement by several blue chip stocks including Pakistan Petroleum Limited, Cherat Cement, Pakistan Refinery Limited, , Nishat Power, Nestle, Engro Corporation. Among the best performing scrip was Habib Metropolitan Bank, which announced that the bank made profits of Rs. 8.5 billion during the nine months ended September 30, 2020, i.e. around 61% higher than the figures reported in the same period of last year. But, investors also adopted a cautious trajectory during the day, and awaited for the announcement of the FATAF review -the virtual plenary of the FATF, which began on Wednesday , Oct 21st and continued till October 23rd. The session was supposed to take the final call on Pakistan’s continuation on its grey list after a thorough review of Pakistan’s performance in fulfilling the global commitments and standards in the fight against money laundering and terror financing. Investors were expecting Pakistan to avoid the black list and stay in grey list, since from a total of 27 FATF mandates given by anti-money laundering body, Pakistan has so for cleared 21. Later on Friday, In a virtual press conference, FATF President Marcus Pleyer announced to keep Pakistan in the grey list until February 2021. In a statement issued after the plenary session concluded, the financial watchdog said: “To date, Pakistan has made progress across all action plan items and has now largely addressed 21 of the 27 action items. As all action plan deadlines have expired, the FATF strongly urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by February 2021.” Pakistan has been on the FATF’s grey list since June 2018. The grey list comprises countries being monitored by the watchdog. During the day, the benchmark KSE-100 Index began the session on a positive note and touched its intraday high at 41,383.38 after it gained 184.36 points and intraday low at 41,064.38 after losing 134.64 points. On a week-on-week basis, the benchmark index recorded an increase of 2.74%, while investor participation improved by 57% and average volumes stood at 466 million shares. The Top performing sectors were Automobiles which gained 7.3% WoW, followed by Fertilizers with an increase in value of 3.8% WoW and Cements with an increase of 3.3% WoW, however, Pharmaceuticals and Exploration &Productions lagged behind. The index volumes, receded from 348.08 million shares recorded in the previous session to 220.4 million shares, while the overall market volumes also decreased from 500 million shares from the previous session to 354.4 million shares. The volume chart was led by Maple Leaf Cement Factory Limited, followed by Pakistan Refinery Limited and Unity Foods Limited. The scrips exchanged 45.78 million, 27.94 million and 24.36 million shares, respectively. Sectors which lifted the index were Cement with 117 points, Insurance with 21 points, Fertilizer with 18 points, Pharmaceuticals with 12 points and Refinery with 8 points. Among the scrips, most points added to the index was by Lucky Cement Limited which contributed 31 points followed by Engro Corporation Limited with 26 points, Cherat Cement Company Limited with 23 points, Maple Leaf Cement Factory Limited with 16 points and Kohat Cement Company Limited with 13 points. However, sectors which continued to add pressure on the index were Oil & Gas Exploration Companies with 40 points, Commercial Banks with 30 points, Power Generation & Distribution with 15 points, Chemical with 11 points and Oil & Gas Marketing Companies with 7 points. Among the scrips, most points taken off the index was by Hub Power Company limited which stripped the index of 24 points followed by Bank Al Habib Limited with 23 points, Oil & Gas Development Company Limited with 20 points, Pakistan Petroleum Limited with 18 points and Engro Polymer & Chemicals Limited with 12 points.