Defence related stocks surge; BHEL up 2%, Nelco up 6%

Defence related stocks gained on hopes of orders after US recognised India as a major defence partner.

Defence related stocks continue to outperform in an otherwise sluggish market on hopes of order inflows after the US today recognised India as a major defence partner. This means that for defence related trade and technology transfer the country would now be treated at par with America's closest allies.

At 12:50pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 25 points at 27,035 and the Nifty50 was up 1 point at 8,267. In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up 0.3%-0.8% each. Market breadth was 1436 gainers and 901 losers on the BSE.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in equities worth Rs 500 crore, as per provisional stock exchange data.

Shares of companies manufacturing defence equipment were among the top gainers after the US recognised India as a major defence partner. Shares of companies engaged in defence related sector such as Walchandnagar Industries, Astra Microwave Products, Reliance Defence and Engineering, Nelco, BHEL and Bharat Electronics have rallied by up to 13% on the BSE

Telecom stocks firmed up after the inter-ministerial panel Telecom Commission on Tuesday backed lowering of spectrum usage charge (SUC) to three per cent of their annual revenue for spectrum acquired in future auction. Bharti Airtel was up 1.5%, Idea Cellular was up 0.5% while Reliance Communications was up nearly 2%.

Financials recouped early losses and were trading positive. ICICI Bank was up nearly 2% while SBI was up 0.5%. Mortgage lender HDFC was up 1.2%.

However, HDFC Bank was down 0.8%. The private sector lender has reduced its marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) - the benchmark to price loans - by five basis points for one-month bucket to 8.95 per cent and 9.25 per cent for the two-year bucket.

L&T was up 0.7% after the engineering major signed contract to build stadium in Qatar for 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Tata Motors was up 0.5% after its overseas arm Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) on Tuesday reported an 18 per cent rise in global sales at 44,946 units in May.

FMCG major Hindustan Unilever extended gains on hopes that normal monsoon would boost rural volumes.

Among others, Shares of GMR Infrastructure were up nearly 3% at Rs 11.85 on the Bombay Stock Exchange after the company said that a consortium led by the company has won the 221 KM Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor project.

Shares of logistics companies have moved higher in noon deal trade on the bourses on hopes of clearance of the crucial Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill in the upper house of the Parliament. Patel Integrated Logistics (up 10% at Rs 111), Gati (7% at Rs 144), Snowman Logistics (7% at Rs 70), VRL Logistics (5% at Rs 298), Sical Logistics (5% at Rs 155) and Allcargo Logistics (5% at Rs 171) were up between 5%-10% on the BSE