U. S. crude oil futures for May delivery edged lower by 18 cents to $50.15. The contract settled 35 cents higher at $50.33 on Friday, buoyed by news of a rebound in U. S. consumer confidence and better-than-expected quarterly earnings Natural Gas prices shot up to $3.729 from $3.599 this sharp rally was attributed to short covering ahead of expiry.

Crude oil speculators on the NYMEX decreased net long positions in the week to April 14, according to data from the U. S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission released on Friday. Speculators moved to a net long 4,962 positions during the week, from 12,493 positions in the week to March 31.

Base metals extended their gains on LME and Comex due to drop in inventories, increased optimism in financial markets and expectation of further Chinese buying. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell to $4731 per tone down by $72 after closing up $74 on Friday.

Precious metals extended the loss on Friday on Comex as dollar strengthened sharply against Euro after the comment from ECB president gave a hint they might cut interest rate by quarter basis points led to correction in precious metals.

The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust, said holdings fell to 1,105.98 tonnes as of April 17, down 13.45 tonnes or 1.2 percent from the previous day. It was the biggest one-day decline since Oct. 3.

The dollar neared a one-month high against the euro with the single currency under selling pressure due to uncertainty over what policy steps the European Central Bank will take next.

GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd (GVKPIL), which provides generation, operation, and maintenance services to power plants in country is presently looking to divest stake in its roads and power ventures.

Latest reports suggest that the company is presently in talks with at least five players for divesting up to 49 per cent stake in these two segments. However, the company said that it would retain a majority stake of at least 51 per cent in these segments.

State run Power Finance Corporation has declared the results for the three-month period ended March 31, 2009.

For the period under review, the New Delhi-based firm said that it has posted a growth of 32.22% in its net profit after higher loan disbursals.

The company’s net profit in the fourth quarter stood at Rs 390.58 crore, as compared to net profit of Rs 295.40 crore during the corresponding period of the last year.

ICICI Prudential AMC, a joint venture between ICICI Bank - one of India's foremost financial services companies, and UK-based Prudential plc - a leading international financial services group, has announced the launch of an open ended equity diversified fund, called the 'ICICI Prudential Target Returns Fund' in the Indian market.

The fund seeks to generate capital appreciation by investing predominantly in equity shares of the large market capitalization companies constituting the BSE 100 index.