Mumbai, Dec 20 (IANS): Nifty crashed on Wednesday, falling steeply post afternoon. At close, Nifty was down 1.41 per cent or 302.9 at 21,150.6, said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities.

Cash market volumes on the NSE were below Rs 1 lakh cr at Rs.0.94 lakh crore. Broad market indices fell more than the Nifty even as the advance decline ratio fell to 0.11:1 – the lowest in almost a year, he said.

Nifty also had the biggest one-day fall in a year on Wednesday.

Nifty seems to have entered a short-term correction and the target in the near term is the 20950-21006 band. On upmoves, the 21235-21365 band could act as a resistance, he said.

Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said domestic equities are witnessing sell off after a sharp run up of more than 12 per cent in last seven weeks.

"We expect the market to consolidate in the near term as investors resort to profit booking and access the potential risk of rising Covid cases, especially in Kerala and Karnataka, making them cautious in the market," Khemka said.