By Madhu Balaji

Copyright thehindubusinessline

Defence stocks such as Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), Mazagon Dock, Cochin Shipyard and Apollo Micro Systems gained in early trade on Monday, powered by a mix of order wins, government policy tailwinds, and heightened investor focus on India’s push for self-reliant defence production.

A major policy development also lifted the mood as the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approved the Defence Procurement Manual (DPM) 2025, a key framework aimed at streamlining, simplifying and rationalising revenue procurement in the Ministry of Defence to meet the Armed Forces’ modern warfare needs.

The new manual is aimed at achieving self-reliance in fulfilling the needs of the Armed Forces under Revenue Head (Operations & Sustenance Segment), the Defence Ministry statement read.

The objective is to utilise the potential, expertise and capability of the domestic market in defence sector by ensuring active participation of private players, MSMEs, start-ups etc along with the well-established Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), it added. A fresh chapter has been included to promote self-reliance through innovation and indigenisation.

Top movers of Nifty Defence index

Among the Nifty Defence index, Cochin Shipyard, Paras Defence, Astra Micro Systems traded with over 2 per cent gains. DCX India, Bharat Dynamics, Cyient DLM, HAL, Zen Tech and Midhani were up over 1 per cent.

On the flip side, GRSE and MTAR Tech declined 1-2 per cent. BEML, Unimech, Solar Industries, and BEL also dipped to trade in negative territory at the time of writing.

On Friday, defence index outperformed other sectoral indices.

Published on September 15, 2025