Defence Shares Spurt As 108 Items Placed On Import Ban List

The shares of defence equipment makers were hogging the limelight in a subdued market on Tuesday, a day after the Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced a Positive Indigenisation List of 108 defence equipment that must be compulsorily sources locally. Among individual stocks, Hindustan Aeronautics surged 5 per cent to Rs 1,069.15, Bharat Dynamics was up 4.5 per cent, BEML was up 1.7 per cent, Bharat Forge gained 1.3 per cent and Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders added 1.6 per cent on the BSE.

On Monday, the Ministry of Defence announced that 108 defence equipment must be necessarily sourced indigenously as per Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020.  Under the list, a total of 49 items will be banned for import after December, 21 cannot be imported after end-2022, 17 items will be banned after December 2023, 13 after December 2024 and eight after December 2025.

In August last year, the government had placed an import embargo on 101 defence items.

The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were trading flat at 51,961.336 and 15,578.15 at the time.