July 6 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE index is seen opening 26 points higher at 7,630 on Friday, according to financial bookmakers.
* BHP BILLITON: Negotiations between workers and BHP Billiton Plc BLT.L at the Escondida copper mine in Chile, the world's largest, are "far from reaching agreement" with less than three weeks to go before the negotiation deadline, a union official told Reuters on Thursday. SHELL: Three contract workers were injured on Wednesday while working on a hydrogen line on a sulfur unit at Royal Dutch Shell Plc's RDSa.L Convent, Louisiana, refinery, a company spokesman said on Thursday. GOLD: Gold prices nudged lower amid a steady dollar on Friday, with investors bracing for any impact on global markets from a deepening trade conflict between the United States and China. OIL: Oil prices dipped on Friday in a nervous market ahead of a raft of import tariffs expected to be imposed later in the day by the world's two biggest economies, the United States and China. The UK blue chip FTSE 100 .FTSE index closed up 0.4 percent at 7,603.22 points on Thursday, as signs of an easing in the trade dispute between the United States and the European Union helped push the index up with gains in basic materials and energy stocks, while shares in AB Foods (LON:ABF) fell after a trading update. For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets
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