Mumbai, March 13 : The Nifty on Wednesday witnessed a massive sell-off as investors and traders rushed to take whatever profits were left on the table to offset the losses on their recent trades, said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities.

The Nifty ended sharply lower below the 22,000-mark amid broad-based selling across sectors.

At close on Wednesday, Nifty was down 1.51 per cent, or 338 points, at 21,997.7, while the Sensex closed at 72,761.89, down 906.07 points, or 1.23 per cent.

Cash market volumes rose to Rs 1.28 lakh crore (highest since February 9, 2024 ' excluding monthly F&O expiry days). The broad market indices came under severe selling pressure and fell much more than the Nifty, even as the advance-decline ratio came in at 0.07:1, the lowest in many quarters, Jasani said.

Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said the Nifty witnessed a sharp correction and fell below the 22,000 zone after consolidating for the last seven days.

The broader markets saw persistent selling as they by 5 per cent. All the sectors ended in red with metals, realty, pharma, oil & gas, and PSU banks down 5-6 per cent.

The markets failed to maintain their momentum amid intense selling seen in mid and small-cap segments.

Ongoing scrutiny by the SEBI, pending outcome of MF stress test, and expensive valuation post smart rally seen in the last few months led to profit booking, Khemka said.

'We expect the sluggishness in the market to continue in the near term with Nifty's major support at the 21,500 zone. The key event to watch out for is India's WPI inflation numbers which will be released on Thursday,' he said.

/IANS