UK Stocks-Factors to watch on March 15

March 15 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 index is seen opening 2points higher at 7,135 on Thursday, according to financial bookmakers. * SHELL: Royal Dutch Shell is close to bagging a deal to supplyHong Kong with liquefied natural gas (LNG), beating out major competitors forthe right to be the first company to supply LNG to the area. * GLENCORE: Glencore Plc, the world's biggest producer of cobalt,has agreed to sell around a third of its cobalt production over the next threeyears to Chinese battery recycler GEM Co Ltd, according to a filingby GEM on Wednesday. * BHP: BHP's Escondida copper mine in Chile, the world's largest,said on Wednesday that it has invited its powerful workers' union to start earlytalks on a new collective labor contract. * GOLD: Gold prices edged higher early Thursday and hovered near one-weekhighs hit in the previous session, as concerns over trade tensions weighed onshare markets. * OIL: Oil prices held steady on Thursday, supported by healthy globaldemand but capped by the relentless rise in U.S. production that is underminingefforts led by producer cartel OPEC to cut supplies and prop upmarkets. * EX-DIVS: Anglo American and Hammerson will trade withoutentitlement to their latest dividend pay-out on Thursday, trimming 1.37 pointsoff the FTSE 100 according to Reuters calculations. * The UK blue chip FTSE 100 index closed down 0.09 percent at7,132.69 points on Wednesday, as shares gave up early gains and finished innegative territory as points gained by Prudential and mining stocks wereoverturned by simmering fears of a global trade war that pushed Wall Street intothe red. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets * UK CORPORATE DIARY: Phoenix Group Full Year 2017 Earnings Release OneSavings Bank Full Year 2017 Earnings Release Amryt Pharma PLC Q4 2017 Trading Statement Release Spirax-Sarco Engineering Full Year 2017 Earnings Release PV Crystalox Solar Full Year 2017 Earnings Release Old Mutual PLC Full Year 2017 Earnings Release Kier Group PLC Half Year 2018 Earnings Release Just Group PLC Full Year 2017 Earnings Release Savills Plc Full Year 2017 Earnings Release Cineworld Group plc Full Year 2017 Earnings Release TODAY'S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit http://topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : http://topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Siju Varghese)