The benchmark Nifty closed the expiry session of February series on a flat note. It remained volatile and traded in a narrow range of 4840-4880 throughout the day. The markets have been consolidating from last few days ahead of Union Budget, which will be scheduled on Friday, February 26, 2010. The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 16,254.20, down 1.77 points while the 50-share NSE Nifty was at 4859.75, up 1.15 points. The Nifty March futures ended with 10 points premium.The markets did not react to the Economic Survey and even Finance Minister (FM) comments. The Economic Survey tabled on Thursday reiterated the view that the Indian economy was firmly back on track after encountering the global downturn and predicted a return to 9% GDP growth by FY12. Buying in cement, capital goods, technology, select auto and metal stocks along with ONGC, ICICI Bank, Idea & Tata Power helped the Index. However, select power and telecom stocks along with HUL, HDFC, Tata Motors, HDFC Bank, Sterlite, Reliance Communications, Siemens, BPCL, Hindalco, Unitech and Reliance Infrastructure witnessed selling pressure.