NEW DELHI: Snapping its three-day rally, the domestic equity market made a sharp u-turn on Wednesday and ended in the negative territory amid heavy selling in banking and auto stocks.

The benchmark indices, which opened on a positive note with Sensex crossing the 32,000 mark and Nifty firmly above 10,000, lost momentum during the day. However, a host of individual stocks and rush in IPO mart kept the D-Street abuzz throughout the session.

Here's a lowdown on top newsmakers of Dalal Street on Wednesday.

IPO arena heats up!
India's third-biggest IPO of General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re) kicked off on a strong note as the issue got subscribed 80 per cent on the first day of the bidding process on Wednesday. The issue received bids for 9,93,04,384 shares as against 12,47,00,000 shares on offer.



Bank stocks take a big hit
The Nifty Bank index lost 1 per cent in today's trade to settle at 24,107 with 11 out of 12 components ending in the red. The Nifty PSU Bank index shed over 2 per cent to close the session at 3,029.65 while Nifty Private Bank index lost nearly 1 per cent to end at 13,654. Punjab National Bank (down 4 per cent), Canara Bank (down 3.50 per cent) and YES Bank (down nearly 3 per cent) were the major contributors to the fall in the Nifty Bank index.



Shining brightly
Shares of Uttam Galva Steels surged 12 per cent in Wednesday's trade after the company said it has four proposals on the table including those from AION Capital and Edelweiss ARC, in addition to the promoter group's own restructuring proposal.

The company was among the 26 names in the second list of defaulters that RBI released in August. It has to find a resolution before December 13, failing which lenders may approach NCLT by December 31. The scrip closed at Rs 29 apiece on BSE.



Bharti Airtel on fire
Shares of Bharti Airtel advanced over 6 per cent in Wednesday's trade after reports said that a consortium led by US buyout fund KKR is in discussion to acquire Bharti Infratel for $11 billion along with Indus Towers, the world’s largest wireless infrastructure company. The scrip settled at Rs 407 apiece on BSE.



Raise a toast to GM Breweries
Shares of GM Breweries hit its upper circuit of 20 per cent in today's trade on the back of strong Q2 results. The company's Q2 net profit was up 41.1 percent at Rs 15.7 crore versus Rs 11.1 crore, in the same quarter last fiscal. The scrip settled at Rs 676 apiece on BSE.



@52-week high
As many as 110 stocks hit fresh 52-week high in today's trade. Some of the prominent names included 63 moons technologies (up 12 per cent), Adani Transmission (up 5 per cent) and Dilip Buildcon(up 0.55 per cent). On the contrary, 21 securities hit 52-week low on Wednesday.



Spurt in open interest
Shares of Petronet LNG witnessed the biggest spike in open interest contracts at 19 per cent, followed by RBL Bank (16.10 per cent) and IndusInd Bank (16.09 per cent).