** Shares of U.S. natural gas companies rise, tracking an uptick in natgas futures NGA/
** Front-month gas futures for April delivery NGc1 on the New York Mercantile Exchange up ~2% at $3.06 per million British thermal units, their highest level since March 23
** Natgas prices rise on expectations that cooler temperatures would boost demand and positioning ahead of the expiry of the front-month contract
** CNX Resources CNX.N up 2%, EQT Corp EQT.N gains 1.4%, Energy Transfer ET.N gains 1.7% and Venture Global VG.N adds 1.3%
** Cheniere Energy LNG.N and Williams Companies WMB.N rise 2.3% and 1.3%, respectively
** Natgas ETFs also rise, with United States Natural Gas Fund UNG.P up ~3% and ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Natural Gas BOIL.P up 6.1%
(Reporting by Pooja Menon in Bengaluru)
((Pooja.Menon@thomsonreuters.com;))