Reuters in the lead on Indian election

Reuters got exclusive access to the first major exit poll that showed India’s Congress party clearly ahead after the country’s election. We got hold of the poll so early that the TV station which had commissioned the survey complained that Reuters had taken the wind out of its sails. The Reuters flash was around 20 minutes ahead of Bloomberg. Dow Jones trailed in an hour later, by which point the Reuters had a story explaining that Congress had a clear lead but was likely to be short of a parliamentary majority. This “first” on May 13 was one of the few pieces of data that came during bond trading hours (unlike the official results which came the following Saturday, when the markets were closed). The benchmark 10-year bond yield rose to a four-week high of 6.47 percent after news of the exit poll. Reuters was consistently ahead on the first Indian election since 1971 to return the same party and prime minister to power. Reuters interviewed the trade minister on the day after the official results, flashing his comments on the need to be cautious with financial service reform, and later a senior Congress party leader told us that the new government was planning fresh economic stimulus measures.