New Delhi, Jan 17 (IANS): Nifty ended sharply lower on Wednesday, marking the biggest intraday fall since June 13, 2022, due to panic selling across the board led by Bank shares, Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities, said.

At close, Nifty fell 2.09 per cent or 460.4 points at 21,571.9.

Cash market volumes on the NSE were the highest ever (excluding the volumes on index rebalancing volume days).

Broad market indices fell less than the Nifty even as the advance decline ratio fell to 0.36:1, he said.

World stocks fell on Wednesday as markets grappled with a central bank push back against interest rate cut expectations, investors reacted to mixed Chinese data and kept a wary eye on the latest developments in the Middle East, he said.

Nifty fell on January 17 with a downgap, forming a bearish island reversal pattern.

On a downward breach of 21,449, Nifty could head towards 20,977 over the next few days, while 21,851 could act as a resistance.

The broader market has not seen panic selling.

"Once we observe that happening the sentiments could deteriorate fast and down move could accelerate," he said.

Nagaraj Shetti, Senior Technical Research Analyst, HDFC Securities said after showing consolidation movement with weak bias on Tuesday, Nifty witnessed massive selloff on Wednesday on the back of weak global cues and closed the day sharply lower by 460 points.

After opening with a huge downside gap of 385 points, Nifty made an attempt to move up soon after the opening.

Intraday pullback rallies in between were used as sell on rise opportunity.

The short-term trend of Nifty seems to have reversed down sharply. There is a higher possibility of Nifty sliding further down to the next lower support of 21,000 levels in the near term.

Immediate resistance for sell on rise is around 21,750-21,850 levels, he said.