Muhurat trading: HAL, BEL among 3 defence stocks to buy this Diwali

A couple of brokerages suggested three defence stocks namely Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and Data Patterns India as their picks for Samvat 2082, citing strong order book and long-term growth visibility.

BEL
MOFSL said the Indian Army’s Rs 30,000 crore tender for ‘Anant Shastra’ project, with BEL as lead integrator, boosts its order book beyond Rs 1 lakh crore and underscores its leadership in strategic defense programs. Positioned strongly under the TPCR 2025 roadmap, it is set to benefit from sustained opportunities across the Army, Navy, and Air Force, MOFSL said adding that BEL offers robust long-term growth visibility, making it a compelling investment in India’s defense modernization journey. The brokerage suggested a target of Rs 490 on BEL. 

HAL

Mirae Asset Sharekhan said Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) has a strategic place in India’s defence story as it is a dominant supplier of aircraft, helicopters, engines, avionics and accessories. It is also the leading provider of maintenance, repair, and overhaul services to Indian defence forces. After delays in execution of Tejas Mk1A contract due to GE-404 engine delivery issues, Mirae Asset Sharekhan believes that HAL’s revenue growth would pick-up substantially from this year, led by pick-up in execution in manufacturing segment. 

“We expect GE engines’ supply to ramp- up, speeding up delivery of Tejas Mk1A aircrafts to IAF. We expect six aircraft to be delivered in FY26 and 16 from FY27. Order backlog stands strong ~Rs 1.9 lakh crore (6x TTM revenue), which provides healthy revenue growth visibility over FY26E-27E. This pipeline gives longer-term revenue growth visibility in the coming years,” it said while suggesting a target of Rs 6,000 on the stock. 

Data Patterns 
ICICIdirect said Data Patterns is one of the fastest growing defence and aerospace electronics
solution provider. As of FY25, radars is the key revenue contributor (52 per cent of total), followed by electronic warfare (17 per cent of total). The order backlog stood healthy at Rs 1,080 crore as of Junee 2025, which  provides medium-term revenue visibility, ICICIdirect said. 

“The management guides fresh order inflows of Rs 2,000-3,000 crore in the next 2 years (including Rs 1,000-1,500 crore in FY26E). With increasing requirement of hi-tech and modernised defence platforms, we believe that company has huge long-term potential in terms of continuous order inflows for electronic systems/sub-systems, from both domestic and export markets,” the brokerage said. It assigned ‘Buy’ rating on Data Patterns with target price of Rs 3,560 per share.