UPDATE 2-UK Stocks-Factors

Feb 12 Britain’s FTSE 100 index is seen opening up 111 points, or 2 percent, on Friday, according to financial bookmakers, with futures up 0.6 percent ahead of the cash market open. For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on

* The UK blue-chip index closed 2.4 percent weaker at 5,536.97 points on Thursday, with a sharp sell-off in major banking and mining stocks pushing the market down to its lowest level in more than three years.

* GSK: Britain’s competition body said on Friday it had fined GlaxoSmithKline 37.6 million pounds ($54.42 million) for market abuse in striking deals to delay the launch of generic copies of its antidepressant Seroxat.

* ROLLS-ROYCE: Britain’s Rolls-Royce halved its dividend to shore up its finances after a slowdown in demand for some of its engines caused full-year profit to fall 16 percent.

* BARCLAYS: Singapore’s DBS Group Holdings and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp as well as Swiss bank Julius Baer have submitted non-binding bids for Barclays’ Asian private wealth business, people familiar with the matter said.

* BHP BILLITON: A judge in Brazil’s state of Minas Gerais has frozen 470 million reais ($118 million) of assets owned by Vale SA and 1.8 million reais linked to BHP Billiton Ltd to ensure payment of damages related to a deadly dam rupture, Rio de Janeiro’s O Globo newspaper said on Thursday.

* BAE SYSTEMS: Kuwait will sign a deal next week to buy Eurofighter jets, Kuwait’s state news agency KUNA said on Thursday, citing the defence minister. Kuwait signed a memorandum of understanding in September to buy 28 Eurofighter jets, the consortium that makes the aircraft said, in a deal worth up to 8 billion euros ($9 billion). BAE Systems is one of the partners of the consortium.

* RIO TINTO: Rio Tinto will seek financing for its massive Simandou iron ore project in Guinea, despite writing down its value due to low commodity prices and funding uncertainties.

* MONITISE: Monitise Plc, a mobile banking technology company, said it took a non-cash impairment charge of 166.8 million pounds ($241.6 million) in the first half for its non-cloud intangible assets.

* EU REFERENDUM: British and EU negotiators agreed much of a reform package on Thursday to help keep Britain in the European Union, leaving Prime Minister David Cameron to settle tricky final issues, notably on migration, at a summit next week, diplomats said.

 [Source:- Reauters]