The Nifty and the Sensex closed marginally negative on Friday.The Nifty closed 10 points down at 5, 887while the Sensex closed 29 points down at 19,468.

“The budget is two weeks away and expectations are high on the Government reigning in fiscal deficit. We believe the markets are now hoping for an ‘achievable’ budget from the Finance Minister.

Further fiscal reforms are also needed to encourage investments from the private sector. If these expectations are fulfilled, markets may once again resume the uptrend on a sustainable basis,” said Dipen Shah, Head-PCG Research Kotak Securities.

It was mixed bag on the broader market front as the CNX midcap index gained 0.38 per cent to close at 7,925 while the CNX small cap index shed 0.31 per cent to close at 3,414.

Volatility was up one per cent and the volatility index India Vix closed at 15.24.

Tata Motors, IDFC, Bharti Airtel, GAIL and Sun Pharma were the top five Nifty gainers while Dr Reddy, Cairn, Grasim, DLF and Ultratech Cement were the top losers.

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