New Delhi, Aug. 25 -- Five of India's six large defence stocks are lower on Tuesday morning. The one that is up is also the only one anybody is trading in size, and that is a more useful description of the sector right now than the direction of the index.

49 IST, up 0.77 percent, on turnover running at 1.73 times its normal pace. The other five are all lower on turnover at or below normal. Hindustan Aeronautics, down 1.13 percent, is falling on the lightest pace in the group. These are live intraday figures from a session that settles at 15:30, and none of them is a closing price.

What holds the whole group in place is a single structural fact. At four of these six companies, the thing that decides the next move is a decision somebody e...