10.58 am: The sports-oriented can also focus on the India versus New Zealand test where the NZ batsmen just had a field day before stumps. 571/6.
10.55 am: The FM has just walked into the Parliament with the budget documents in a red briefcase. One hopes the budget speech will be allowed to be read out with much disturbance. Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge had to cut short his speech on February 11 amid protests over the Telangana issue.
10.50 am: 10 minutes to go before Chidambaram walks out to present the last (interim) budget of the current UPA government. Stay tuned. 10.45 am: CNBC-TV18 is running a quiz. "Who was the finance minister before the P Chidambaram?" SMS 3A for Manmohan Singh, 3B for Pranab Mukherjee, 3C for Yashwant Sinha to '51818'. Correct answers get LED TVs. Go figure.
10.40 am: Here's an article that revisits Dr Manmohan Singh's legacy of nearly 10 years as prime minister. Superb stock market performance and above-average economic growth but still mixed at best? 10.35: Trivia: This is ninth budget of Chidambaram's career. He is one short of Morarji Desai's record of 10. 10.30 am: Here's an interview with well-known FII Adrian Mowat of JPMorgan on his expectations from the V o A.
10.25 am: An important statistic investors will be eyeing would be eyeing in the V o A will be the projection for FY15 fiscal deficit. A number between Rs 6 and Rs 6.5 trillion will be digested well. Anything higher than Rs 6.5 trillion may not go down too well with the stock or bond market. 10: 20 am: The most important reform Kris Gopalakrishnan is looking forward to is the goods and services tax (GST).
10.15 am: The chief of the Confederation of Indian Industry, Infosys' Kris Gopalakrishnan, says the FM will likely talk about the achievements of his party. Talk about the fiscal deficit control, economic growth of the past 10 years, etc, instead of making big-bang announcements.
10.10 am: In non-budget news, the Aam Aadmi, BJP and the Congress, will all present their economic agendas document. Left, right and centre? The CII is also holding its national executive meeting today. 10.05 am: Here's an exclusive interview with Kaushik Basu, Chief Economist with the World Bank. The theme of fiscal consolidation will reign in the V o A, as well as the full budget in July, he says. 10.00 am: It is about an hour to go for V o A to be presented. The market has given up some of its gains and is about 0.2 percent higher. 9.55 am: The FM could announce excise cuts for select sectors, says tax expert Dinesh Kanabar of KPMG.
9.50 am: Overnight, US stock markets were between 0.4 percent and 0.8 percent higher. Key Asian markets are up about the same. 9.45 am: The market will approach the upcoming elections as a binary event, says Masha Gordon, VP & Head of Emerging Market Equities, Pimco. "The key thing to watch for will be the government’s commitment to fiscal consolidation," she says in an interview to CNBC-TV18. Pimco has been adding to its India position, more from a fundamental perspective than as a bet on the election result, she says.
9.40 am: Veteran broker and value investor Raamdeo Agrawal of Motilal Oswal says investors should focus more on the economy's fundamentals, which have been improving, rather than V o A. On a day everyone is talking about the FM, Agrawal seems more enthused with the RBI governor and hails him for his inflation-fighting methods.
9.35 am: The new government will present a full budget in July. Hence most experts say today's V o A will likely not be any major trigger for the market. 9.30 am: Meanwhile, you can catch an exclusive interview with Planning Commission Deputy Governor Montek Singh Ahluwalia to know more about his thoughts on the economy.
9.25 am: Stocks globally are headed for a down year and developed markets, which have been leading stocks higher over the few year or so will now lose steam, Shankar Sharma of First Global says on CNBC-TV18. On the political front, Sharma, who is believed to have a soft corner for the Congress, says the party will come back to power with the help of Third Front parties and that investors are "over-invested in the Modi trade" -- referring to the market's expectations about the perceived-to-be-pro-business BJP leader coming to power.
9.20 am: Stocks such as Titan are up over 1 percent amid buzz that the FM could relax curbs on gold import. Over the past year, the FM increased duty on gold from 4 percent to a record 10 percent, to deter gold-loving Indians from buying the yellow metal -- much of which was being imported from abroad and taking a toll on the country's trade balance and consequently, the rupee. But UBS Securities tells CNBC-TV18 that it it does not believe duty on gold will be cut and has a negative view on gold.
9.15 am: The market is now open . Both the Sensex and the Nifty are up 0.4 percent each.
Coal India is down 1 percent while Bharti Airtel is up 1 percent. 9.10 am: Speaking of the fiscal deficit, while most market experts have come around to believe the FM will not breach the target (his self-titled "red line"), thanks to belt-tightening measures the government carried out in the last few months, along with the bumper spectrum auction, many believe the FM has done a lot of "creative accounting" to get to that number -- such as pushing some of this year's expenditures to the next year. So a closer look will be warranted into the maths of the budget.
9.05 am: The market is likely remain volatile today, believes CNBC-TV18's Udayan Mukherjee . One of the key elements that will be watched out for, he says, will be whether the government meets the fiscal deficit (the negative difference between government's yearly revenues and expenditures) target of 4.8 percent of GDP that the FM had outlined in the budget last year.
9.00 am: Here are eight things that the stock market is looking forward to in the V o A. Meanwhile, the market is slightly higher (0.3 percent on the frontline indexes) in pre-open.
8:55 am: The FM will present a Vote on Account instead of a regular Budget. This is usually done when an incumbent government's tenure is about to end. If you don't the difference, read this here .
But in short, in a V o A, the FM traditionally stays away from big-bang announcements, either on the policy or tax front, and sticks to largely presenting the government's yearly account while making projections for the remaining months of its tenure.
8:50 am: We have a full-blown page dedicated to the V o A that you can find here . Here you will find breaking-news flashes, articles, videos, FAQs, stock recommendations, infographics, quizzes and more. Also remember to check out the special section there titled "10 years of UPA" in which we chronicle the economic hits and misses of the Manmohan Singh-led government over its two tenures. Conversely, if you prefer the visual medium, watch CNBC-TV18 live here .
8:45 am: Good morning and welcome to live coverage of the Vote on Account. Finance Minister P Chidambaram will present the V o A in Parliament in a speech that is expected to start at 11 am. Here you can get news, views and real-time updates on the event. Stay tuned.
Source: News in Hindi
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