On Friday, the KSE-100 Index opened modestly lower on the first day of the month amid lacklustre activity on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). The KSE-100 Index fluctuated in a smaller band of roughly 400 points after a few tumultuous sessions, reaching 45,000 points intra-day. However, it was unable to hold on to its gains and ended the day down 27.90 points (0.06 percent) at 44,871.70. the closing price. The FATF meeting later this month and US-China ties are likely to keep markets volatile in the near term, though we feel major repercussions are unlikely given the bipolar global arrangements we find ourselves in. There was a considerable drop in trading volume on the all-share index from Thursday to Friday, from 372.43 million shares to 267.05 million. The total value of shares traded fell to Rs9.02 billion from Rs13.8 billion on Thursday during the session. It was followed by Byco Petroleum with 14.24 million shares and Hascol Petrol with 14.18 million shares in terms of volume of shares traded. Friday’s trading saw shares of 561 different firms go up, down, or stay the same. Of them, 368 recorded gains, 178 saw losses, and 15 remained flat.