UK Stocks-Factors to watch on March 9

March 9 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 index is seen opening 2points higher on Friday, according to financial bookmakers. * SHELL: Royal Dutch Shell Plc and U.S. private equity firmBlackstone Group LP are working on a joint $10 billion bid for BHPBilliton Plc's BLT.L U.S. shale assets, Sky News said on Thursday. Royal Dutch Shell is selling out of the ageing Draugen field in Norway andis also offering small stakes in a number of other fields, according to adocument seen by Reuters. Saudi Aramco signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Thursday topursue international gas opportunities with Royal Dutch Shell. * OIL: Crude oil futures rose on Friday as Asian stock markets gained onnews that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will meet with U.S. President DonaldTrump. * GOLD: Gold prices extended losses into a third session on Friday as thedollar strengthened against the yen on hopes of easing tensions between theUnited States and North Korea and ahead of U.S. non-farm payroll data later inthe day. * The UK blue chip index closed up 0.63 percent Thursday, but laggedEuropean peers as falling metal prices hit commodity stocks and a number ofBritish blue chips traded without entitlement to their latest dividend pay-outs. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets * UK CORPORATE DIARY: Eurocell Full Year 2017 Earnings SIG Full Year 2017 Earnings Inmarsat Full Year 2017 Earnings GVC Holdings Full Year 2017 Earnings 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 Justin George Varghese)