UK Stocks-Factors to watch on May 11

By Reuters / May 11, 2017 / in.investing.com / Article Link

May 11 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE index is seen opening 11 points lower on Thursday, according to financial bookmakers.

* BHP: Workers at BHP Billiton's BHP.AX , BLT.L Cerro Colorado copper mine in Chile will strike for 24 hours in the coming weeks to protest recent layoffs and the company's general attitude toward miners, the main union told Reuters on Wednesday. MYLAN/GLAXO: Generic drug maker Mylan NV MYL.O on Wednesday said it disagrees with the reasoning behind the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's decision not to approve its generic for GlaxoSmithKline Plc's GSK.L blockbuster Advair in March. Just Eat: Just Eat Plc JE.L is facing an in-depth investigation by the competition watchdog on proposed takeover of Hungryhouse over fears restaurants could end up with a worse deal, The Guardian reported on Wednesday. OIL: Oil prices rose on Thursday, and Brent was firmly back over $50 per barrel, as a fall in U.S. crude inventories and a more severe than expected cut in Saudi supplies to Asia tightened the market. GOLD: Gold was steady early on Thursday, holding just above eight-week lows hit earlier this week, as the U.S. dollar and stocks firmed amid expectations of imminent interest rate rises. EX-DIVS: Admiral Group ADML.L , BP BP.L , Centrica CNA.L , Glencore GLEN.L , GlaxoSmithKline GSK.L , Merlin MERL.L , Sainsbury SBRY.L , Sage Group SGE.L will trade without entitlement to their latest dividend pay-out on Thursday, trimming 13.7 points off the FTSE 100 according to Reuters calculations. The UK blue chip index ended up 0.6 percent, on Wednesday, as strong earnings updates underpinned recent gains and housebuilder Barratt BDEV.L outperformed peers. For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets