Do it yourself

  Self-reliance in the defence sector has been one of the major investment themes in the past one year in particular. Besides dedicated public sector defence manufacturers, the stocks of a large number of equipment and service providers to the Indian defence establishments have seen a sharp up move. In the melee to own “defence stocks” many investors have ignored the basic principles of investment and buying stocks of these companies at any price. It seems a little has been learned from the recent unwinding in pharma API manufacturers and internet stocks which witnessed similar traders’ interest in 2019-2021. An informal discussion with some randomly selected market participants indicated that many individual investors and traders may not have a clear idea about the opportunity in the Indian defence sector. The way people tried to associate companies with the defence sector opportunity, it appeared that almost every company listed in India may be a potential beneficiary of the gr...

In past few days there has been heightened activity in stocks of the companies which are perceived to be beneficiaries of the "war" (trade or military) with China. My fellow small investors are lapping stocks making defence equipments, telecom equipments and missiles, as if there is going to be an attack on China tonight. The stock prices of many such stocks have risen by 10-25% this week. The stock price of a public sector power equipment manufacturer gained on the assumption that the government might ban Chinese competitors and the order book of this company may swell. Some pharma, chemical and agro chemical companies also witnessed action based on assumption of trade restrictions with China. The businesses dependent on imports from China witnessed selling pressure, while the businesses considered to be the alternative to the Chinese impost saw extra buying interest. I would like to request my fellow investors to exercise some extra caution and restraint while ju...