Sept 21 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 index is seenopening 21 points higher at 7,389 on Friday, according tofinancial bookmakers.
* LLOYD'S OF LONDON: Lloyd's of London, theinsurance market that covers risks from oil rigs to soccerstars' legs, said on Friday that it had returned to profit inthe first half, following a 2017 loss brought on by a recordyear for catastrophes.
* SMITHS GROUP: British engineering group Smiths Groupreported a 2 percent rise in full-year revenue onFriday, helped by higher demand for the parts it supplies to theoil and gas industry.
* SIG: British construction materials supplier SIG Plcon Friday reported a 21.8 percent fall in first-halfunderlying pre-tax profit as builders delayed projects becauseof Britain's long icy winter.
* SHELL: Royal Dutch Shell Plc is in talks to sellits assets in a Gulf of Mexico oilfield to Focus Oil to pay forits takeover of BG Group Plc, Bloomberg reported on Thursday,citing people familiar with matter.
* SKY: A protracted $34 billion bidding war for Europeanbroadcaster Sky between U.S. rivals Comcastand Twenty-First Century Fox is likely to be settled bya quick-fire auction on Saturday.
* VODAFONE: Vodafone said it would have 1,0005G-enabled network sites in Britain by 2020, deliveringblisteringly fast speeds and near-instant response times that itdemonstrated by making Britain's first holographic mobile callon Thursday.
* BREXIT: Britain's anti-European Union UK IndependenceParty (UKIP) launched a set of populist policies on Fridayhoping to revive their dwindling political influence andcapitalise on outrage over the government's handling of Brexit.
* ACCOUNTING FIRMS: The "big four" accounting firms could bebroken up under plans by UK's Labour Party to overhaul theauditing industry, Britain's shadow chancellor John McDonnelltold The Financial Times on Friday.
* OIL: Oil prices were mixed on Friday after falling in theprevious session as U.S. President Donald Trump urged OPEC tolower crude prices ahead of its meeting in Algeria this weekend.
* GOLD: Gold prices edged up on Friday to a one-week high asthe dollar weakened on receding fears of a full-blown Sino-U.S.trade war, keeping the yellow metal on track for its firstweekly gain in four.
* UK TAX: Support in Britain for increased levels of tax tofund more public spending has hit a 15-year high, according to asurvey published on Friday, after nearly a decade of governmentefforts to cut its budget deficits.
* The UK blue chip index closed 0.5 percent points higher at7,367.32 on Thursday as UK shares lagged their European peers ona trade war relief rally, after better-than-expected UK retaildata boosted the pound which acts as an accounting drag on theirforeign revenues.
* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, pleaseclick on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets
TODAY'S UK PAPERS
> Financial Times
> Other business headlines(Reporting by Samantha Machado and Siju Varghese in Bengaluru)
