Of the 117 applications received in the January-July, 2011, period, the maximum requests were from captive power plants, followed by state electricity boards and independent power producers, sponge iron and cement plants, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal

MoneyControl says the equity sell off of the last 48 hours is evoking the memory of the start of the financial crisis in mid 2008. Oil and other commodities prices have fallen, although from historically high levels. The big fear - reflected in a dramatic sell off of natural resources stocks - is that the commodities boom is over, with raw materials set to drop sharply.

Gold had recorded its earlier all-time high on April 30. "Major factors in the coming quarters could see gold rising as high as USD 1,650 (an ounce) by 2011 end. Euro zone debt fears and US economy troubles are positive for gold," said Gnanasekar

According to the World Steel Association (WSA), production of steel in China during the January-June period of the current year stood at 350.543 MT, almost half of world output during the same period and the single highesat by any country.

Shreekant Jha, managing director of PJ Commodity Ventures said, it is time to buy gold. “The short-term trend is up. You should be seeing it reach Rs 23,000 per 10 grams.”

at 17:48 ALSO READ Coal India BSE| NSE 08/07/11 Other Stocks in this news Sesa Goa| SP Tulsian, sptulsian.com view on Sesa Goa and Coal India . Tulsian told CNBC-TV18, “It is largely against the working or maybe the interest of Coal India because

Zinc and Lead have shown stunning recovery recently as Greece passed austerity measures but this will be short lived and it is only relief measure because overall euro zone problems is much bigger.