Mumbai, Jan 23 (IANS): The market witnessed a continuous decline on Tuesday, abruptly turning negative despite a positive start, mainly due to substantial selling in the heavyweight sectors, particularly finance, said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

The blue-chip Nifty 50 and the BSE Sensex both slid over 1 per cent each on Tuesday to end at 21,238.80 and 70,370.55, respectively.

Mid and smallcaps witnessed more decline compared to the main indices. Selling by FIIs due to reasons like high valuation and mixed results for the earnings season so far, along with recent escalations in tensions in the Middle East and Red Sea, prompted the investors to book profit from the recent rally, Nair said.

Going forward, markets are likely to witness stock-specific actions during the ongoing earnings season.

Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities, said a few days of consolidation have led to a decline, with Nifty slipping below the lower end of the recent consolidation range.

The bearish sentiment appears to be strengthening as Nifty closed at its lowest points on multiple days. Weakness may persist in the short term, with support at 21,200; below this level, the index could potentially decline towards 21,000 and beyond. Looking ahead, the market may continue to be a "sell on rise" scenario as long as it remains below 21,500, De said.