A day after the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) gave a green signal for proposals worth Rs 7,800 crore to enhance the operational capabilities of the armed forces, stocks of defence companies were trading higher on Friday. The Ministry of Defence under which the DAC works, said all procurements would be made from indigenous sources only, according to news reports.
Shares of MTAR Technologies, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, Bharat Dynamics, Hindustan Aeronautics, Bharat Electronics, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Zen Technologies, Paras Defence were up between 0.3 per cent and 1.9 per cent at 10.05 am on Friday. For the Indian Air Force, the DAC approved the request to buy and install an Electronic Warfare Suite on Mi-17 V5 helicopters. This will help the helicopters stay safer. The suite will come from Bharat Electronics.
Apart from DAC, stocks of companies related to aerospace came under the limelight on Thursday, with firms such as Centum Electronics rallying nearly 20 per cent, after the successful touchdown of Chandrayaan-3 mission's Vikram lander on the Moon. According to PTI, the stock of Centum Electronics zoomed 19.69 per cent, Paras Defence, and Space Technologies rallied 17.30 per cent, MTAR Technologies jumped 10.32 per cent and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd climbed 2.69 per cent on the BSE on Thursday.
Shares of Astra Microwave Products climbed 2.63 per cent, Larsen & Toubro went up 1.82 per cent and Bharat Forge gained 1.63 per cent. Centum delivered more than 200 mission critical modules to the Chandrayaan-3 mission, according to the company's website.
Most of these companies hit their 52-week high levels during morning deals. Shares of companies related to aerospace and defence sectors had jumped on Wednesday too.
India's Moon mission Chandrayaan-3 touched down on the lunar south pole at 6.04 pm on Wednesday, making it the first country to land on the uncharted surface. "The near-term market outlook has turned distinctly positive with the US economy's soft landing narrative lifting sentiments globally and Chandrayaan-3's successful soft landing on the Moon boosting sentiments in India," said V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services.