Defence Stocks Soar After Centre Imposed Embargo On Weapons Imports
Defence-oriented stocks soared by up to 13 per cent in early trading after Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday announced restrictions on the import of 101 weapons and military platforms in order to boost indigenous production. Bharat Electronics soared 13 per cent to Rs 112, Bharat Dynamics zoomed 6.9 per cent to Rs 448, BEML gained 4.5 per cent to Rs 686 and Bharat Forge added 5.8 per cent to Rs 432.
The items on the negative list include high technology weapon systems such as artillery guns, assault rifles, corvettes, sonar systems, transport aircrafts, light combat helicopters, radars and many other items.
"This decision will offer a great opportunity to the Indian defence industry to manufacture the items in the negative list by using their own design and development capabilities or adopting the technologies designed and developed by the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) to meet the requirements of the Armed Forces," the minister said.
It is estimated that contracts worth almost Rs 4 lakh crore will be awarded to the domestic industry within the next 6 to 7 years.
The BSE Sensex was at 38362.79, higher by 332 points or 0.85 per cent and the NSE Nifty was at 11,312.60, up 98 points or 0.89 per cent at the time.
