Shares in defence manufacturing companies shot up on Monday after the government raise foreign direct investment (FDI) by allowing 74% up from 49% under the automatic route via automatic route as a part of the economic stimulus announced to help the economy during the coronavirus pandemic.

Major defence stocks rose up to 10% in intra-day deals bucking the overall weak broader market trends.

Shares of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) jumped 10%, Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) rose 5.53%, BEML advanced 5.3%, Astra Microwave Products surged 4.93% and Bharat Dynamics was trading up 4.71% on the S&P BSE Sensex.

India’s benchmark indices erased early gains and fell sharply on Monday as stimulus measures announced over the weekend failed to cheer and investors fretted over the extension of the nationwide lockdown till May 31.

The S&P BSE Sensex declined over 957.78 points or 3.08% to 30,139.95 level and NSE’s Nifty50 was at 8,854.35, down 282.50 points or 3.09%, at 11:20am.

Both the indices were dragged by bank stocks.