COMPANIES

UAL Corp, parent of United Airlines, posted a narrowed quarterly net loss on Tuesday, but its revenue was hit hard by economic recession that drained travel demand.

India's gold imports are set to grow by a quarter in April from a year ago, the first rise since August, and demand should strengthen ahead of festivals later in the year, the head of metals trading firm MMTC Ltd said on Tuesday.

Caterpillar Inc , the world's largest maker of construction and mining equipment, reported its first quarterly loss in 17 years on Tuesday, pulled into the red by more than half a billion dollars in charges from its wave of recession-triggered layoffs.

Wal-Mart Inc's plan to eliminate jobs at its China unit has met with resistance from the up to 1,400 workers involved, the U.S. retailer said on Tuesday.

Honda Motor Co. President Takeo Fukui said on Tuesday the U.S. market has shown signs of having bottomed out since the start of April.

The Obama administration will make about $500 million available to Chrysler LLC through the end of this month as it seeks to reach an alliance with Fiat, and up to $5 billion through May to help General Motors Corp restructure outside of bankruptcy, an independent oversight report on the Treasury Department's corporate rescue fund said on Tuesday.

Chemical maker DuPont reported a 59 percent fall in quarterly profit, trimmed its full-year outlook and said it would cut more jobs as weak economic conditions continued to constrict demand.

PepsiCo Inc said Monday it will buy the two largest bottlers Pepsi Bottling Group and Pepsi Americas for $6 billion, in a move to control its unit about 80 percent in North American.

IBM said Monday its first quarter sales fell better than expected from Reuters Analysts' average forecast of $22.56 billion, however earning per share rose to 1.70 from $1.64.

Swiss banking UBS AG said Monday it plans to sell its Brazilian unit for £1.7 billion or $2.5 billion to BTG investments to boost up its capital in the current economic crisis.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn wants to engineer a sale of biotechnology company Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc to its diabetes partner Eli Lilly and Co , according to Amylin.

Canadian oil and gas company Terra Energy Corp. said it will buy privately held Tecton Energy Canada ULC for C$8 million ($6.55 million) in cash and stock to further solidify its position in the Fort St. John area of British Columbia.

Top auto executives projected sales growth of up to 10 percent this year in China, but this lone bright spot among the world's major car markets is also producing ambitious potential rivals to the global auto majors.

Bernd Pischetsrieder, ex-CEO of Volkswagen, could be a suitable head of a new Opel company independent of troubled U.S. parent General Motors Corp, an Opel dealer group in Germany was quoted on Saturday as saying.

A fund run by China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group, one of China's two leading nuclear power developers, has signed a deal raising 7 billion yuan ($1.03 billion) for nuclear and other energy projects, the Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

Oil company Shell has amassed up to 10 cargoes or about 6 million barrels of Forties benchmark crude oil from the North Sea, possibly for storage, over the past two weeks, traders said on Friday.

Mattel Inc posted better gross margins on Friday as it kept a tight lid on costs and inventory in the first quarter, cheering investors to overlook a wider-than-expected loss for the period.

The U.S. government and Italian carmaker Fiat SpA will appoint a board of directors for embattled automaker Chrysler following the completion of a proposed alliance between the companies, Chrysler Chief Executive Bob Nardelli said on Thursday.

Volkswagen's global vehicle sales fell by 11.4 percent in the first quarter but its market share gains may have let it overtake Japan's Toyota Motor as the world's top-selling automaker.

Volkswagen may have become the world's top-selling automaker in the first quarter as government incentives have fueled demand in its major markets, overtaking industry giant Toyota.

GMAC LLC, the General Motors Corp financing affiliate that received a government bailout, said its mortgage unit is hiring 1,000 people to handle a surge in refinancings and jumbo loans.

Air China, which posted bigger-than-expected 2008 losses, returned to profit in the first quarter of 2009, helped by an exceptional gain and lower fuel costs.

Nippon Steel Corp and other steelmakers have agreed with Toyota Motor Corp to cut steel prices by more than 10 percent this business year, a newspaper said, a smaller-than-expected price cut.

Royal Bank of Canada, Canada's largest bank, said it will take a charge of roughly $850 million (C$1.03 billion) because the value of its international businesses has declined, reducing second-quarter earnings by an equivalent amount.

Chinalco’s $US19.5 billion ($27 billion) deal with Rio Tinto are unlikely to trouble the government and its best assets will draw regulatory scrutiny, according to the Australian reports Thursday.

MANAMA - Several foreign banks see huge untapped opportunities in Iran for Islamic finance, spurred on by hopes U.S. President Barack Obama's new approach toward the Islamic Republic will end years of sanctions hampering busines

Sun Microsystems shares rose 10 percent Thursday after its willingness to resume IBM acquisitions talks to complete the deal; however IBM is no longer interested.

Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn said on Thursday that the company will introduce zero emission cars into the U.S. market by 2010 with a price that makes sense in the market.

The big four auto makers in Brazil joined forces with the Sugar Cane Industry Association (Unica) on Wednesday in a campaign aimed at expanding the use of cane-based ethanol in flex-fuel vehicles.