Budget 2012: Miffed Monkeys share disappointment with humans

So, what do the Monkeys and brokers think of Union Budget 2012?

Firstpost managed to get interviews with both the Monkeys after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presented his budget proposals in parliament. Like most humans, the simians were disappointed by what they heard.

Monkey 1, whose portfolio consists of 10 randomly-selected stocks from the BSE 100, said he was upset by the fact that no meaningful measures were announced to enhance agricultural productivity.

Instead, “what we got are a hike in excise duty and a wider service tax net, which are likely to make goods and services even more expensive across the economy,” he said. “The prices of fruits, vegetables and other foods will just keep increasing, and the government has lost an opportunity to anything something substantial about it. My banana prices will continue to keep rising.”

He rated Mukherjee’s budget a 5 out of 10.“The finance minister made some efforts here and there to help the economy but there was nothing substantial,” he added gloomily.

Monkey 2, the more outspoken of the two simians and manager of a portfolio consisting of 10 randomly-selected stocks from the BSE 500, was even more blunt. “It’s a do-nothing-for-growth budget,” he said. “The government was keen on raising revenues to close its fiscal deficit and it managed to do that by increasing taxes on almost everything. Promoting growth through economic reforms does not seem to have been on the agenda at all. Greedy government!”

He now plans to stop eating branded peanuts, his favourite snack, because they wouldcost more.

Both Monkeys also thought given that the Budget was such a damp squib, it would not affect the markets too much. Market performance, they said, would depend primarily on foreign investor flows, which are expected to remain relatively robust in the medium term.

Given that so many key economic events took place over the past three days – the railway budget, the release of the Economic Survey, a monetary policy review and the Union Budget – most investors remained cautious in the week ended 16 March. The benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty slipped by a marginal 0.2-0.3 percent.

Monkey portfolio 1 slipped 0.04 percent, while the brokers’ portfolio, a collection of 10 stocks picked by 10 brokerages , was down 0.3 percent.Monkey portfolio 2, meanwhile, was up 0.3 percent.

All three portfolios retained their ranking of the previous week for the period since inception (19 August, 2011): the brokers’ portfolio led with a gain of 9.7 percent, matching the Nifty’s gains, while Monkey portfolio 1 came second with an 8.3 percent gain, matching the Sensex’s performance. Monkey portfolio 2 lagged as usual, shedding 2.2 percent .