Private Defence Stocks: On Monday, May 12, 2025, shares related to India’s defence sector moved in different directions after news came out that India and Pakistan had agreed to a ceasefire. This ceasefire came after more than 90 hours of military tension that followed India’s Operation Sindoor.
This operation was carried out in response to the recent terror attack in Pahalgam. Investors watched defence stocks closely as the situation cooled down and some stocks reacted positively while others saw losses.
Private Players Rise
By 12:31 pm on Monday, some of the big defence names on the market showed small gains. Bharat Electronics and Bharat Dynamics were slightly higher, rising by up to 1 percent. But Hindustan Aeronautics was on the weaker side, slipping by over 1 percent. Other defence-related companies also showed mixed performance.
Russia Refuses 30 days Ceasefire Until West Stops Arming Ukraine
Zen Technologies, Unimech Aerospace, and Krishna Defence did well, going up as much as 5 percent. On the other hand, stocks like Paras Defence, Astra Microwave, and Apollo Micro Systems dropped up to 6 percent.
Paras Defence and Space Technologies especially took a hard hit, falling by about 5 percent and touching a day’s low of ₹1350.20 on the BSE.
The day’s trading pattern showed private defence companies doing better than government-owned PSUs. While most defence shares climbed up, PSU stocks like HAL didn’t perform as well. Private firms led the gains across the board. Meanwhile, the Nifty India Defence Index ended the day up by 0.7 percent, supported by good performance from stocks like Cyient DLM, BEML, and Zen Technologies.
Private Defence Stocks
- Ideaforge Technology – Shares of the aerospace and defence company closed over 6 per cent up at Rs 491.40 apiece on Monday.
- Dynamatic Technologies – Shares of the BSE SmallCap stock closed 5.5 per cent higher at Rs 6703.90 on Monday.
- ZEN Technologies – The stock closed at 5 per cent upper circuit at Rs 1476.65 apiece on BSE.
- Droneacharya Aerial Innovations – Shares of the company closed at 5 per cent apiece at Rs 71.53 on BSE.
- Data Patterns (India) – The stock closed nearly 4 per cent up at Rs 2384.40 apiece on BSE.
- Mishra Dhatu Nigam – BSE 500 listed aerospace and defence company’s shares closed 3.40 per cent up at Rs 329.95 apiece on Monday.
- PSU Defence Stocks
- Bharat Electronics (BEL)– Shares of the leading defence PSU closed 2.23 per cent higher at Rs 322.80 apiece on Monday.
- Bharat Dynamics– BSE 500 listed state-owned defence company’s settled 2.5 per cent up at Rs 1569.70 on BSE.
- Cochin Shipyard– The stock ended over 2 per cent up at Rs 1521.05.
- BEML– BSE 500 company’s shares closed 4.67 per cent up at Rs 3201.60 apiece on BSE.
Volatility in the Market Drops
The India VIX, which measures how volatile the market is, dropped by nearly 15 percent on Monday. This big drop showed that markets felt more calm after the ceasefire news. It also meant that investors believed the situation between India and Pakistan might not get worse for now. This helped lift some defence stocks and made the overall environment a little more stable.
Nifty Defence Index
Since the launch of the Nifty Defence Index in November 2024, it has been doing better than many other stock market benchmarks. In just the past month, this index has gained 18%. That’s a much better return compared to the Nifty 50, which went up 8%, and the Nifty Midcap 100, which grew 9% reports Zee Business.
Defence Sector Growth in India
Experts say the recent rise in defence stocks is not just because of the India-Pakistan tension. There is a bigger, long-term reason behind it. Rahul Ghose, the CEO and Founder of Octanom Tech and Hedged.in, explained it well.
He said, “While near-term momentum may be driven by conflict-related sentiment, the real story lies in the long-term structural push for indigenous defence manufacturing under the Atmanirbhar Bharat mission. The government’s consistent focus on import substitution, increased allocation to defence capex, and the promotion of public-private partnerships have laid a strong foundation.”
India has been spending more money on defence in recent years. In the current financial year (FY25), the government gave over ₹6.2 lakh crore to the defence sector. Out of this, ₹1.72 lakh crore was only for capital expenses like buying or making new equipment. Looking at rising tensions and global risks, this budget might grow even more in the future.
