KARACHI: Sanity returned to the stock market on Tuesday after a heavy sell-off the earlier day. The KSE-100 index managed to recover 50.68 points (0.15 per cent) to close at 33,616.90.

Trading was thin as most investors remained cautious. Volume was down 30pc to 156m shares whereas traded value decreased by 34pc to Rs6.8 billion.

A senior broker considered Monday`s decline as a mere retracement after previous rising streak. Some thought that the jittery investors had overreacted on political uncertainty.

`Overall market sentiment improved compared to Monday with significant reversal gains seen in cements, E&P, OMCs, autos,insurance and multi-utilities,` observed analysts at Intermarket Securities.Contribution to upside came from PSO, OGDC, MCB, POL and DGKC to thetune of 50 points.

`Although market momentum has lost steambut the initial deterioration in sentiment is likely to find a pit stop at least for now,analysts observed.

Analyst Arhum Ghous at JS Global said that the ECC decision to issue sovereign guarantee for syndicated TFCs to the power sectorand approvalofnoncash settlement of Rs70.167bn power sector receivable/payables inspired bullish sentiment in PSO (1.43pc).

Analysts at Global Securities concurred that major gains to the index came from PSO, while HUBC (0.48pc) and K APCO (0.62pc) also supported the index by 11 points.

The textile sector also gained, led by KTML (2.76pc) and NML (0.85pc), as the export-oriented sector will set to gain from any potential weakness of the rupee versus dollar.

Dealers at Topline Securities said that a bit of recovery was seen in banks and cements.