Ahead of Budget, Sensex crosses 40k mark
Ahead of the Union Budget presentation, the Sensex on Friday morning hit the 40k mark trading 119 points up at 40,027.
The Sensex had closed higher on Thursday settling 0.17 per cent up at 39,908.06 with the Nifty closing 0.25 per cent higher at 11,946.75.
The markets held their ground after finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the government's Economic Survey in Parliament ahead of the Union Budget.
The survey pegged India's growth to seven per cent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in FY20 on stable macro-economic conditions with fiscal deficit at 5.8 per cent in FY19 against 6.4 per cent in FY18.
In February, while presenting the annual budget for 2019-20, the government had revised upward its fiscal deficit target to 3.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) for 208-19 from the previously estimated 3.3 per cent budgeted target.