Defence stocks: HAL, GRSE, Apollo Micro gain up to 3% in weak market

The Nifty India Defence index hit an intra-day high of 9,093.20, up 1.3 per cent on the NSE in intra-day deals, and was inching towards its 52-week high of 9,159.55 touched on June 24, 2025.

Defence share price movement

 

Shares of defence companies including state-owned and private were in focus, gaining up to 3 per cent on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in Tuesday’s intra-day trade in an otherwise subdued market.

 

The Nifty India Defence index hit an intra-day high of 9,093.20, up 1.3 per cent on the NSE in intra-day deals. The defence index was inching towards its 52-week high of 9,159.55 touched on June 24, 2025. In comparison, the Nifty 50 index was down 0.74 per cent at 23,940.75 at 10:40 AM.

 

Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers, Apollo Micro Systems, Data Patterns (India), Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), MTAR Technologies, Paras Defence and Space Technologies and BEML from the index were up in the range of 1 per cent to 3 per cent.

 

 

What's driving defence stocks?

 

Shares of Ideaforge Technology hit a 52-week high of ₹796.30, surging 9 per cent on the NSE in Thursday’s intra-day trade. In the past one month, the stock has skyrocketed 97 per cent, as against 5.3 per cent rise in the Nifty 50.

 

In the past two trading days, the stock has zoomed 30 per cent after the company, a market leader in the Indian unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) market, reported its strongest quarterly performance in Q4FY26 with ₹141 crore revenue and ₹60 crore profit after tax (PAT), with the highest-ever annual order bookings of ₹530 crore in FY26, signalling a strong FY27 outlook.

 

The company said, in March, when the world was grappling with supply-chain challenges, Ideaforge executed 40 per cent of its open orders as indicated in Q3, demonstrating resilience built through deep engineering, supply-chain ecosystem, and operational capability. This included deliveries of electronic warfare (EW) resilient systems after extensive acceptance testing by end-users in an EW environment.

 

Drones are increasingly playing a vital role in offensive operations, and the management said the company is actively developing combat drones for long-range attack, loitering munitions, kamikaze, etc., and are prepared to participate in the upcoming wave of opportunities. 

 

Meanwhile, stock price of HAL was up 3 per cent at ₹4,677.50 in intra-day deals. In the past two trading days, the market price of one of the largest Defence PSU in India has rallied 8 per cent.

 

HAL focused on aircraft, helicopters, aeroengines, and avionics. The order book as of March 2026 stands at ₹2.54 trillion (7.9x FY26 revenue), providing strong medium-term visibility. Execution in Tejas aircrafts is expected to pick-up from FY27E, led by ramping-up of engines delivery from GE. Other platforms and MRO contracts are already witnessing better execution. Longer-term order pipeline also remains robust in aircarfts, aero-engines and UAVs, according to ICICI Securities. The brokerage firm set a target price of ₹4,960 per share.

 

Share price of MTAR Technologies was up 3 per cent to ₹6,314 in intra-day trade. Thus far in the calendar year 2026, the stock has zoomed 160 per cent, as against 4.7 per cent decline in the Nifty 50. 

 

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