The shares of Paras Defence zoomed 19% to hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 1,373.80 on BSE amid a block deal of 3.29 lakh shares, while PSU defence stock GRSE was also trading around 12% higher. Mazagon Dock, Cochin Shipyard, and Astra Microwave were also trading around 5-8% higher.
Shares of Tejas-maker Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) surged 5.5% to its all-time high of Rs 5,484.20 on BSE after the Ministry of Defence issued a request for proposal to procure 156 Light Combat Helicopters from the PSU. The tender’s value is said to be worth around Rs 50,000 crore, the largest single order given for acquisition of choppers to an Indian company.
Defence stocks have been under investor radar after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh set a target to generate military exports worth Rs 50,000 crore on an annual basis and vowed to fast-track initiatives under ‘Make in India’ for defence production.
“Defence exports had touched a record Rs 21,083 crore in financial year 2023-24. It was historic. Our target will be to export over Rs 50,000 crore worth of defence equipment by 2028-2029,” Singh had said after taking charge last week.According to earlier estimates by Nomura, the share of defence capex is set to increase to 37% of total budget in FY30 from 29% in FY25 estimates, which implies cumulative capital outlay of Rs 15.5 trillion over FY24-30 (vs cumulative FY18-24: Rs 7.8 trillion).”Our bottom-up analysis presents ordering opportunity worth $138 billion over FY24-32 for defence manufacturing and production,” Nomura had said. The Japanese brokerage firm has been bullish on HAL and Bharat Electronics.
