Today's fall in indices is seen as a healthy correction before another bout of rally, said brokers and technical analysts. The Sensex opened higher today at 3660.40 before falling by over 100 points in the afternoon session following sustained profit-taking by speculators and funds.

Most of the pharma and software stocks which led the rally after the budget closed lower, while banking stocks, which had joined the rally late continued to hit upper price bands. Among the pharma scrips, Pfizer continues to attract buying and closed 4.2per cent higher on NSE. After touching a low of Rs 1,125 the stock closed at Rs 1,240 registering a net gain of 4.26 per cent. Again, market was agog with rumours that Morgan Broking has still not completed the execution of the pending buy orders. Most other pharma scrips closed lower including the favourites like Glaxo, E-merck, Hoechst Marrion and German Remedies. Fullford held on to its gains and closed in the same range as yesterday.

Among the major software speculatives, Pentafour Software closed 2.21 per cent down at Rs 981.50. The scrip found buying support at lower levels and moved up towards close from the intraday low of Rs 955.

Satyam computers closed 3.35 per cent lower at Rs 1074, Silverline 5.26 per cent lower at 281, HCL down by 1.89 per cent at Rs 565.10, NIIT down by 5.57 per cent at Rs 2174, infosys down by 6.40 at 3160 and Digital Equipment down by 4.78 per cent at 408.50.

Housing stocks were also victim of unwinding by speculators, with HDFC shedding 1.53 per cent, while LIC Housingmanaged to absorb selling and closed higher by 2 per cent.

Bank stocks were the only exception today with most of the stocks hitting the upper price band on sustained buying by punters and institutions. ``The bank stocks went on the rally mode only on Wednesday after the Reserve Bank of India announced rate cuts and there is still a lot more to cover before operators start unwinding their positions. Most of the banks stocks were at their historic lows before the RBI announcement. So there is still a lot more power left in the bank rally,'' said a BSE broker.

ITC was the market leader among the mainline speculatives with large volumes and good gains. It closed Rs 25.25 up at 949.50 on the BSE, while on the NSE it closed at Rs 949. Other gainers included Zee telefilms, up by 27 to 845 and Himachal Futuristic up by 8 per cent at Rs 79.90.

The volume of business on the BSE was remarkably low at Rs 1704.16 crore compared to Rs 2272.16 crore in the previous session. ITC was at the top with a turnover of Rs288.13 crore followed by Pentafour Software Rs 240.54 crore, Reliance at Rs 112.23 crore, SBI at Rs 111.96 crore and Zee Telefilms at Rs 103.23 crore.