Budget Reactions: Market will move on from boring Budget, says Samir Arora

Expectations were high from Budget 2013, but unluckily Finance Minister P Chidambaram failed to deliver. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Samir Arora, fund manager at Helios Capital, says that the FM has not delivered a Budget which will excite the investment crowd and help the capital market.

“I know they have to implement the measures and all, but I think this is not something that will spark a rally. It is not exciting enough to bring new investors or investors who we have missed in the past because that spark was not there,” he said. He goes on to say that this Budget will not motivate domestic investors to come back into the market and invest. Overall, he believes the market has already forgotten the Budget, and that it will now move on to focus on other issues. Below is an edited transcript of his interview with Udayan Mukherjee. Also watch the accompanying video. Q: You went in with a lot of expectations from a market perspective, so do you think the FM has lived up to all of that? A: I do not think he has lived up to it. I am a big picture guy and I believe that we give so too much emphasis to whether the deficit is 4.8 percent or 5.3 percent. It is not as if that number is so accurately calculated. In my viewpoint, if he says 4.8 percent but it becomes 4.9 percent, it does not matter as long as the direction is right. So this was not an exciting Budget, and that is what the market is also saying with its current response. So I believe this Budget will be forgotten very quickly. In fact, I think it has already been forgotten. Now I know they have to implement the measures and all, but I think this is not something that will spark a rally. So this was like any other normal market day. And that is what we have been used to. We get excited every time, forgetting every year that at the end of the day it is just a boring Budget. Q: What happens to the market from hereon? Is it life as usual from Monday onwards, or do you think there is something in the fine print which can have a durable impact on the trend? A: We are looking for are quality investors with a long-term view. The sad part is that domestic investors do not invest, only foreign investors invest in the market. With this Budget, domestic investors will still not be motivated enough to invest. It is not a bad Budget, it is a boring budget and it is unexciting. What we need is for the domestic investors to be excited, to feel charged up. But however, because they are short-term they will not be motivated by this Budget. Overall, I think we will start moving from tomorrow itself. With the world, it is that one day we are up and down the next. It is not exciting enough to bring new investors or investors who we have missed in the past, such as mutual fund and insurance companies, to come back because that spark was not there. Also read: FM cuts STT, introduces CTT on non-agri commodities