Defence stocks rally up to 9% on import ban

Defence stocks rallied as much as 9 per cent as investors rushed to buy them post-defence ministry issuing a statement on Sunday, banning import of 101 items.

The top gainers on the BSE included Hindustan Aeronautics (8.74 per cent), Bharat Electronics (9.17 per cent), Bharat Dynamics (4.16 per cent), Bharat Forge (3.62 per cent), Walchandnagar Industries (4.92 per cent), Larsen & Toubro (4.81 per cent) and Cochin Shipyard (3.27 per cent).

Other gainers included Astra Microwave Products (5.48 per cent), Reliance Naval & Engineering (4.87 per cent), Garden Reach Ship Builders & Engineers (7.24 per cent), Mishra Dhatu Nigam (4.15 per cent), BHEL (2.84 per cent) and BEML (3.95 per cent).

Analysts from Edelweiss Securities said, “What is noteworthy here is a clear timebound & specific itemwise imports embargo to help the manufacturers (especially private sector) prepare better and commit more investments across the value chain (Tier I, II, III, components manufacturer etc). We would like to believe that Tier-I integrators will reap greater benefits over next two to three years as their supplychain (MSMEs, private sector) will further strengthen augmenting their systems delivery capabilities, with respect to timeline as well as complexity.”

“We are positively surprised with the pace of policy announcement, which is far more specific and includes clear timelines,” Edelweiss Securities said.