NEW DELHI: Underpinned by gains in bank, metal and auto shares, equity indices Sensex and Nifty settled in the green on Wednesday, snapping the losing run of last two sessions. Analysts attributed the gains to the short covering in the recently beaten-down stocks amid hopes of a rate cut by the US Fed, as there was no explicit fresh positive trigger at home.“The market reversed after testing the psychological level of 11,000 mark supported by short covering in bank and auto stocks after recent fall and prospects of a dovish Fed policy. However, investor appetite for midcaps and smallcaps is yet to grow even after a long consolidation,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services. The market breadth remained tilted towards negative as 1,355 stocks declined on BSE against 1,137 that logged gains. Sensex closed 84 points, or 0.22 per cent higher at 37,481 while NSE’s Nifty closed at 11,118, up 33 points or 0.29 per cent.Here is a breakdown of the key highlights of Wednesday’s session:Axis Bank drops 5% Shares of Axis Bank closed 4.55 per cent down at Rs 674.40, a day after the private lender posted lower-than-expected financial results for June quarter on Tuesday. The bank’s June quarter profit climbed 95 per cent YoY to Rs 1,370 crore from Rs 701 crore posted for the same quarter last year. However, the numbers missed estimates of analysts, who had estimated a Rs 1,850 crore profit figure in an ET Now poll. Affle India IPO subscribed 86 times The initial public offer (IPO) of mobile marketing firm Affle India got subscribed 86.42 times so far on the final day of the bidding process on Wednesday. The Rs 459 crore issue received bids for 29,19,36,660 shares against the total issue size of 33,78,021 shares till 4:30 pm, as per NSE data. Hero MotoCorp up 4%Shares of Hero MotoCorp closed the day 4 per cent higher at Rs 2,349.75 after the two-wheeler maker posted a 35.89 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,256.69 crore for the first quarter ended June 30 on the back of an exceptional gain of Rs 737.48 crore. IOC gains on Q1 beatAfter logging losses for four consecutive sessions, shares of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) closed 4.31 per cent higher at Rs 139.30 after the company reported a 47.36 per cent year-on-year drop in standalone profit at Rs 3,596.11 crore in June quarter, still beating analyst estimate of Rs 1,077 crore profit by a wide margin. 740 stocks touch 52-week lowsSome 740 stocks, including Hero MotoCorp, IndusInd Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Tech Mahindra, Ashok Leyland, Biocon and Britannia Industries, hit 52-week lows on BSE. Stocks above & below 200-DMAsAxis Bank, JSW Energy, BEML, Sunteck Realty, Mahamaya Steel and Triveni Engineering were among the stocks that witnessed negative breakouts and traded below their 200-DMAs. On the other hand, Larsen & Toubro, Century Textiles and Industries, Voltas, United Spirits and Federal Bank were among the stocks that traded above 200-DMAs. 71 stocks signal bearishnessMomentum indicator moving average convergence divergence, or MACD, showed bearish crossovers on 71 counters on BSE, signalling these stocks may suffer losses in the coming sessions. Among them were South Indian Bank, Can Fin Homes, HDFC AMC, Bombay Burmah, ICICI Securities and Ultracab (India). On the other hand, ICICI Bank, IDFC First Bank, Delta Corp, Jindal Stainless, SRF and Au Small Finance Bank were among 62 stocks that showed bullish crossovers.185 stocks in oversold zoneMomentum oscillator Relative Strength Index, or RSI, showed 185 stocks, including Vodafone Idea, RBL Bank, Bombay Dyeing, Reliance Naval, Bajaj Hindusthan Sugar and Oriental Bank of Commerce have entered the oversold zone on BSE. On the other hand, Rollatainers, Yashraj Containeurs and Goenka Business were among 17 stocks that entered the overbought zone. Most traded stocksWith nearly 15.73 crore shares changing hands, Vodafone Idea ended the day as the most traded stock on NSE. It was followed by YES Bank (number of shares traded: 13.31 crore), Axis Bank (5.58 crore), Dish TV India (4.62 crore) and GMR Infra (3.91 crore). On the other hand, Axis Bank (Rs 3,788.14 crore) led. YES Bank (Rs 1,188.98 crore), RIL (Rs 1,139.29 crore), Ibulls Housing Finance (Rs 1,078.75 crore), IndusInd Bank (Rs 1,071.07 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs 949.56 crore) were the most traded stocks in value terms. Metals shineSnapping the losing run of the last two sessions, the BSE Metal pack settled 2.43 per cent higher, ending as the top gainer among its sectoral peers. All stocks of the index logged gains, with Tata Steel (up 4.15 per cent), Jindal Steel (3.60 per cent), Nalco (3.41 per cent), JSW Steel (2.97 per cent) and SAIL (2.76 per cent) as the top gainers. “There was no fresh trigger for the metal stocks. It was short-covering that pushed them higher,” said Sameer Kalra, Founder of Target Investing.