Budget 2026, Jan. 30 -- Major defence stocks staged a sharp rally during the Budget week, with several counters gaining as much as 26%, as expectations built that the defence sector could emerge as a key beneficiary of Budget 2026.

Defence stocks such as Bharat Electronics, Hindustan Aeronautics, Garden Reach Shipbuilders, BEML, Data Patterns, Cochin Shipyard, Apollo Microsystems and Bharat Dynamics moved higher as investors priced in the possibility of a sizeable jump in defence capital expenditure, with analysts anticipating an increase of up to 20%.

The key areas expected to receive higher allocations include missiles and ammunition, unmanned aerial vehicles and counter-UAV systems, electronic warfare, air defence, network-centric sy...