(Adds futures, news items)
Feb 13 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE index is seen opening 14
points lower on Thursday, according to financial bookmakers, with futures
FFIc1 down 0.3% ahead of the cash market open.
* LOOKER: Britain's competition watchdog on Thursday gave the go-ahead to
Google's GOOGL.O $2.6 billion buyout of privately held big-data analytics firm
Looker Data Sciences. * Relx: European information group Relx REL.L said it was not yet clear
how the outbreak of coronavirus would hit its events business in China or other
regions. Centrica: British utility Centrica CNA.L posted a 35% slump in full-year
operating profit, hurt by a government introduced price cap on energy bills as
well as lower natural gas prices. * Coca-Cola European Partners: Coca-Cola European Partners CCEPC.L
reported a 4.5% rise in annual revenue and said it expects that to grow in
low-single digit in 2020, while also announcing a 1 billion euros ($1.09
billion) share buyback. LANCASHIRE: Property and casualty underwriter Lancashire LRE.L said its
earnings for the whole of 2019 quadrupled in comparison with the previous year,
boosted by a rise in insurance prices.
* BARCLAYS: Britain's financial regulators are probing historical links
between Barclays BARC.L Chief Executive Jes Staley and the U.S. financier
Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself while awaiting trial on sex trafficking
charges, the bank said. * VODAFONE: An Australian court approved a A$15 billion ($10.1 billion)
merger between a unit of Britain's Vodafone Group VOD.L and internet provider
TPG Telecom TPM.AX , overruling a regulator and enabling a huge rival to the
country's top telcos. * HOUSE PRICES: British house prices rose at the fastest pace in nearly
three years last month, according to a closely watched survey, that adds to
signs of a rebound in consumer sentiment since December's election lifted some
Brexit uncertainty. * BP: BP BP.L has written to Algeria to express its interest in investing
in its oil sector and has not made any request to sell its shares in the In
Amenas gas plant, state news agency APS quoted Energy Minister Mohamed Arkab as
saying on Wednesday.
* EX-DIVS: BP BP.L , Hargreaves Landsdown HRGV.L , Polymetal
International POLYP.L and Shell RDSa.L will trade without entitlement to
their latest dividend pay-out on Thursday, trimming 11.7 points off the FTSE 100
according to Reuters calculations. * OIL: Oil prices were mixed as concerns about falling demand caused by
travel restrictions tied to the coronavirus outbreak in China, the world's
biggest oil importer, outweighed expectations of supply cuts from major
producers. * GOLD: Gold rose as a surge in the number of new coronavirus cases in China
dashed hopes that the epidemic was slowing and drove investors to safe-haven
assets. * UK shares advanced on Wednesday, helped by gains in heavyweight oil firms
and on relief that the number of new cases of coronavirus infections out of
China was falling. UK PAPERS
> Financial Times PRESS/FT
> Other business headlines PRESS/GB