Country's jewellery export witnessed modest growth of 0.45% to $21.11 billion in FY09 despite low demand from traditional markets of US and European countries. The sector performed well in first half of the fiscal. However, exports dipped by 18.9% during the second half under the impact of global slowdown and higher gold prices.

Crude settled up 30 cents at $48.85 on Wednesday, as early gains on U. S.

Base metals witnessed range bound trading session and ended the day with negative bias, Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange fell $150 to $4,390 per tone and metals like Zinc and Nickel also went down sharply.

Chinese buying for stockpiling purposes had helped push copper prices higher this year touching six-month peaks last week but Beijing's State Reserves Bureau may be done buying for now, having breached its target volume and given the current price levels. The global copper market was in a surplus of

Gold nudged up on Thursday, adding to gains from the previous session on concern about the global economy and the financial sector, as well as physical buying in India, the world's largest consumer. But the market lacked momentum to push towards the key $900 mark, weighed down by stalling investment in the world's largest goldbacked exchange-traded fund.

Buying from India ahead of the Akshaya Tritya festival on April 27, an auspicious time for gold buying, continues to lend support. Also, while some risk appetite has returned in recent weeks with stocks recovering from their lows, investor preference for gold as a safe-haven asset remained intact.

Hindustan Zinc, a part of the dynamic Vedanta Resources group, has declared the results for the three-month period ended March 31, 2009.

For the period under review, India's leading zinc producer said that it has posted a decline of 53.35% in its net profit, which stood at Rs 551.47 crore as against Rs 1,182.20 crore during the corresponding period of the last year (March 2008).

The company’s total income during the fourth quarter witnessed a fall of 39.39% to Rs 1,483.15 crore from Rs 2,446.97 crore in the fourth quarter of FY 2008.

If you are presently finding traveling to railway station with family or friends a difficult task, then there is good news for you.

In a latest development, Indian railway has decided to offer taxis at the door steps of passengers by dialing call-centre number '139'.

Presently, the round-the-clock enquiry service 139, run by IRCTC offers services like information about PNR status, arrival/departure of trains, seat availability and fare and accommodation.