The benchmark indices closed the last session before the Union Budget on Monday on a strong note. Buying in financial, infrastructure, pharma and select oil & gas stocks along with Bharti helped the markets to post smart rally in the last one-and-a-half hours of trade, after seeing some consolidation in the previous few days.

The Nifty crossed the 4400 mark successfully while the Sensex inched towards the 15,000 mark.

The 30-share BSE Sensex surged 254.56 points or 1.74%, to settle at 14,913.05, after seeing an intraday high of 14,945.85 and low of 14,499.74. The 50-share NSE Nifty closed at 4,424.25, up 1.73% or 75.40 points, after witnessing a day's high/low of 4434.45 and 4298.95, respectively. Both indices gained 1% each this week.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, when he presents the union budget on Monday, will have the comfort of delivering what he wants to, without the pressures of key allies tugging at him with their respective demands - thanks to the Congress party being a major force in the United Progressive Alliance government. Unlike his predecessor in the previous government, P Chidambaram, who had the left gunning him with its own ideologies and policies, this budget comes as a fresh whiff of air, when the finance minister can afford the leeway to walk his talk.

Rajen Shah of Angel Broking said he saw a blockbuster budget on Monday. "It (the budget) will be growth-oriented. However, we need to keep in mind that the markets have already run up about 85% from the [March] bottom so if we have see a status quo for a while, I do not think there it would be something to worry about," Rajan said. "Once the budget is out and we have a clear view whether we will see growth of about 6.5-7% probably more in the coming years, the markets will cheer that," he said, adding that the market could test 16,000 levels.

On the next page - Sectoral indices, Global cues