Mumbai, March 19 : Falling to its lowest level in over a month, the Nifty closed 1.08 per cent or 238.3 points down at 21,817.5 on Tuesday, said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities.

Cash market volumes on the NSE were low at Rs.0.83 lakh crore. The midcap index fell more than the Nifty even as the advance-decline ratio remained negative at 0.36:1.

Shares were mixed in Asia on Tuesday after the Bank of Japan raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time in 17 years, ending a long negative rate policy, Jasani said.

The Bank of Japan brought an end to the world's last negative interest rate policy and stressed that financial conditions will remain easy.

A break of Nifty at 21,745 on the downside could result in an acceleration in the downtrend, while 21,905 could offer resistance on the upside, Jasani said.

Nagaraj Shetti, Senior Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities, said that after showing a range-bound action in the last few sessions, Nifty witnessed a decisive downside breakout of the range movement on Tuesday and closed lower by 238 points.

After opening on a negative note, the market continued its weakness for the better part of the session on Tuesday.

The overall chart pattern of Nifty is weak and one may expect further decline in the near term, Shetti said.

The next lower levels to be watched are around 21,500 in the next one week. Any rise up to 22,000 could be a sell-on-rise opportunity, he added.

/IANS