July 12 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100  .FTSE  index is to open 26 points
higher at 7,618 on Thursday, according to financial bookmakers. 
    
    * SKY: Comcast Corp  CMCSA.O  on Wednesday raised its offer for Britain's
Sky  SKYB.L  in a deal valuing the pay-TV group at $34 billion, challenging a
raised bid from Twenty-First Century Fox  FOXA.O . urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1U73J7
    *  BHP BILLITON: BHP Billiton Plc  BLT.L ,  BHP.AX  handed in a proposal for
a new labor contract to the union at its Escondida copper mine in Chile that
includes a salary readjustment linked to inflation and a $23,000 bonus per
worker, the company said on Wednesday. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N1U8034
    * GLENCORE: Glencore Plc  GLEN.L  faces at least two lawsuits by U.S.
shareholders accusing the big Anglo-Swiss mining company of having made false
and misleading disclosures before it received a subpoena in a corruption probe,
and its stock tumbled. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N1U71WP
    * NATIONAL GR urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1U74IA
    * MICRO FOCUS: Britain's Micro Focus Intl  MCRO.L  reported an 8 percent
decline in revenue for the six months to end-April, as it struggled to integrate
the assets it bought from Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and said it would rack up
another $210 million in exceptionals. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1U74WG 
    * BRITAIN-EU/BANKS: Britain has given up trying to keep full access to the
European Union market for its giant financial services sector after Brexit and
instead will push for an easing of existing rules, the Financial Times
reported. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1U762J
    * FRANCE-FINANCING: France will pare back financial regulations to EU
minimums and introduce new tax incentives to make Paris a more attractive
finance hub, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Wednesday. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1U71SW
    * COPPER: London copper eased on Thursday after heavy losses in the previous
session pushed it to its weakest in a year at one stage as trade tensions
between the United States and China undermined confidence in demand for
metals. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1U817T
    * OIL:  Brent crude rose more than $1 on Thursday, recouping some ground
after its biggest one-day drop in two years in the previous session on news that
Libya would resume oil exports and U.S.-China trade tensions. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1U81JO
    * EX-DIVS: Halma  HLMA.L  will trade without entitlement to their latest
dividend pay-out on Thursday, trimming 0.13 points off the FTSE 100 according to
Reuters calculations  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1U728S 
    * The UK blue chip index fell 1.3 percent on Wednesday, as the United States
threatened to slap 10 percent tariffs on a list of $200 billion worth of Chinese
imports, escalating a trade war and sending jitters across global
markets. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1U74O3
    * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets
    
    * UK CORPORATE DIARY:    
 Dunelm Group Plc                DNLM.L   Q4 2018 Trading Statement Release
 Ophir Energy Plc                OPHR.L   Trading Statement Release
 Premier Oil Plc                 PMO.L    Trading and Operations Update
 ASOS Plc                        ASOS.L   Trading Statement Release
 
        
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 (Reporting by Harish Bhaskar)
 ((harish.bhaskar@thomsonreuters.com; +918067493686;))