Agartala, Apr. 21: Elections for two Lok Sabha seats scheduled on April 23, Tripura witnessed a very dull last day of campaigning.

“This is the dullest election I have witnessed till date; the state Congress unit without any campaign or activities seems to have given a walkover to the Left”, said senior member Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) and a former Congress MLA Tapas Dey.

Tripura which is politically very active unlike earlier, this election missed street plays, poems, songs and colourful decorations as part of campaigning for the two Lok Sabha seats.

Chennai, Apr 21: Marumalarchi Drav

Crude futures in U. S. steadied below $46 a barrel, after falling nearly 9 percent a day earlier as worries about the U. S. banking sector hit equity markets. The U. S. dollar rallied on safe-haven bids.

New York Mercantile Exchange natural gas futures ended down sharply on Monday, as a steep slide in crude, milder weather forecasts and growing supplies pressured the complex despite a rebound in physical prices.

Risk aversion and stronger dollar have victimized base metals complex. We have seen sharp correction in copper, nickel, zinc and lead. Despite of drawdown in inventories, copper prices plummeted on LME.

Industrial metals slid on Monday with copper tumbling about 5 percent as skidding equities underlined concern about the economy and demand, while a stronger dollar exerted downward pressure. Copper inventories in LME warehouses fell by 7,300 tonnes to 462,325 tonnes, having dropped nearly 80,000 tonnes since mid-February. Cancelled warrants stocks earmarked for delivery rose to 68,325 tonnes from 64,400 tonnes on Friday.

After a steep decline in price during last week, demand from India was seen improving due to Akshaya Tritya festival and U. S. stocks broadly dropped more than 3 percent, stirred by worries that problems would persist for the struggling banking sector which led to sharp upside in precious metals. Every time risk aversion has risen, we have seen precious metals moving up.

Durban, Apr 21: Kolkata Knight Riders thrashed Kings XI Punjab by 11 runs in a rain truncated Indian Premier League match here on Tuesday.

Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Brendon McCullum won the toss and elected to field first.

Kings XI, which had earlier lost its opening match to Delhi Daredevils, got a poor start when both opener Karan Goel lost his wickets early.

Irfan Pathan, who was promoted up in the order, hit some beautiful shots. He scored 32 runs off 17 balls.