Defence firms pare early gains; down over 2% on profit-booking

Paring their initial gains, shares of defence equipment makers ended with losses today, down more than 2 per cent, mainly on profit-booking in an overall weak stock market.
Defence stocks made gains earlier in the day following the government's increasing the FDI investment limit in the sector to 49 per cent.
Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering Company fell by 2.19 per cent, while BEML lost 1.89 per cent on the BSE.
Bharat Electronics was down 1.26 per cent and Astra Microwave Products' scrip fell by 0.69 per cent.
Some of these stocks had gained as much as 5.1 per cent in the intra-day trade.

Pressing ahead with economic reforms, the Cabinet last night cleared the long-delayed proposal for raising FDI limit in defence to 49 per cent.

The decision taken at the Cabinet meeting headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi came barely two weeks after the one to raise the FDI cap in insurance sector from 26 per cent to 49 per cent.
FDI ceiling in the sensitive defence sector has been hiked to 49 per cent from current 26 per cent, with the condition that the control in joint venture manufacturing of defence equipment will remain in Indian hands.
In the broader market, the BSE benchmark Sensex ended with a loss of 76.26 points at 25,589.01.