Mumbai: Paring their initial gains, shares of defence equipment makers ended with losses Thursday, down more than 2 percent, 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 percent.
Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering Company fell by 2.19 percent, while BEML lost 1.89 percent on the BSE.
Bharat Electronics was down 1.26 percent and Astra Microwave Products' scrip fell by 0.69 percent.
Some of these stocks had gained as much as 5.1 percent 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 percent.
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 percent to 49 percent.
FDI ceiling in the sensitive defence sector has been hiked to 49 percent from current 26 percent, 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.
