Bharat Electronics Shares Buck Profit Booking in Defence Names, Robust Order Books Lifts Mood

Bharat Electronics shares were trading in the green territory despite the broader sector witnessing profit-booking on Tuesday. Major defence names, including Paras Defence and space technologies, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Cochin Shipyard, were down by as much as 7% on the National Stock Exchange. However, Bharat Electronics bucked the trend as the company's management pointed to a solid order book worth around Rs 27,000 crore for FY26.

"Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile (QRSAM) order related all the paper activities and other things are going on very, very fast. We are hoping it may come by the last quarter of this year itself, but we are telling in addition to QRSAM, the QRSM may be around roughly around 30,000 crores, we are expecting," the management said during the call.

"In addition to that, we are hopeful to get this year around 27,000 crore additional orders," the management added.

So far this year, shares of Bharat Electronics Ltd. have surged more than 24% on the bourses. During the past six months, the rally in the defence stock has been even stronger, with gains of over 31%.

Meanwhile, the Nifty India Defence index has gained over 21%, outperforming the NSE Nifty, which has recorded a single-digit rise during the same period.

Defence Sector's Robust Order Book

During the past few weeks, defence stocks witnessed a robust rally due to border tensions between India and Pakistan. Even as the tensions eased, investor sentiment remained bullish on defence stocks as major companies estimated a strong order book. "We continue to be positive on the Indian defence shipyards sector given strong order outlook, a robust policy framework favoring indigenization, and substantial government investment," Antique Stock Broking said in its report.

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has approved orders worth Rs 8.45 trillion over FY22–25, nearly 3.3 times the amount sanctioned in the preceding three years. This is expected to translate into significant order inflows for defence shipyards in FY26–27, as per the brokerage firm.