The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed flat on Friday, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index gaining 0.25 points to close at 45,763.45 points. The market opened on a positive note and gained around 220 points during the early hours. However, it remained range-bound and low-volume due to a lack of positive triggers, eroding all the gains till end of the session. Moreover, profit-taking activity continued during the session which brought the index down. The KSE-100 Index moved in a range of 253.58 points, showing an intraday low of 45,734.30 points and a high of 45,987.88 points. Among other indices, the KSE All Share Index gained 58.6 points (+0.19 percent) to close at 31,329.44 points, while KMI All Share Islamic Index shed 6.58 points (-0.03 percent) to close at 22,474.94 points. A total of 359 companies traded shares in the stock exchange, out of them shares of 141 closed up, shares of 198 closed down while shares of 20 companies remained unchanged. Out of 96 traded companies in the KSE-100 Index, 35 closed up, 55 closed down and six remained unchanged. The overall market volumes decreased by 87.62 million to 239.98 million shares. Total volumes traded for the KSE-100 Index increased by 40.31 million to 90.20 million shares. The number of total trades decreased by 14,854 to 89,327, while the value traded decreased by Rs0.38 billion to Rs6.1 billion. Overall, market capitalisation increased by Rs14.64 billion. Among scrips, UNITYR3 topped the volumes with 26.27 million shares, followed by WTL (25.14 million) and CNERGY (23.68 million). Stocks that contributed significantly to the volumes included UNITYR3, WTL, CNERGY, DSL, and UNITY, which formed around 40 percent of total volumes. In terms of rupee, UPFL remained the top gainer for the third straight day and witnessed an increase of Rs166 per share, closing at Rs20,490 whereas the runner-up was NESTLE, the share price of which climbed up by Rs124.25 to Rs5,524.25. PRET remained the top loser in terms of rupee and witnessed a decrease of Rs39.98 per share, closing at Rs610.01, followed by SIEM, the share price of which declined by Rs19 to close at Rs625 per share. The sectors taking the index towards north were commercial banks with 43 points, oil and gas exploration companies (28 points), fertilizer (18 points), and automobile assembler and chemicals with 10 points each. The most points added to the index were by HBL which contributed 29 points followed by PPL (14 points), FFC (13 points), INDU (11 points) and BAFL (8 points). The sectors taking the index towards south were cement with 46 points, power generation & distribution (19 points), engineering (13 points), technology & communication (12 points) and refinery (9 points). The most points taken off the index were by HUBC with 16 points, LUCK (14 points), UNITY (12 points), AVN (9 points) and TRG (8 points). According to experts, it is the accumulation phase and the market is set to take off. They said that market is taking correction after getting around 3,000 points during the recent rally which has been continuing for the last two weeks. They, however, warned that surge in Omicron cases may dent investors’ confidence though the government has recently announced not to impose lockdown.