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Aug 24 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE index is seen opening down 18-20 points, or 0.3 percent, on Wednesday, according to financial bookmakers, with futures FFIc1 down 0.4 percent ahead of the cash market open.
* The UK blue chip index closed up 0.6 percent at 6,868.51 points on Tuesday, helped by a rise in housebuilders after strong results from Persimmon PSN.L suggested that the sector was coping with the uncertainty from Britain's vote to leave the European Union. ONESAVINGS: OneSavings Bank Plc OSBO.L said it had increased its focus on professional landlords and tightened criteria on its smaller residential development finance and funding line businesses after Britain's vote to leave the European Union. WPP: WPP WPP.L , the world's largest advertising group, reported a better-than-expected 3.8 percent jump in first-half net sales and nudged its revenue forecast higher on strong demand across the board for its services. GLENCORE: Glencore GLEN.L reported first-half adjusted underlying profit (EBITDA) down 13 percent at $4 billion, but said it was on track to cut debt through asset sales and set a new target to cut net debt to between $16.5 billion and $17.5 billion this year. ASTRAZENECA: Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca AZN.L said it had agreed to sell its small molecule antibiotics business to Pfizer PFE (NYSE:PFE).N in a deal that could reach more than $1.5 billion. SABMILLER: Aberdeen Asset Management ADN.L said on Tuesday it was pleased a court had ruled SABMiller SAB.L shareholders can be treated as two separate groups when they vote on a takeover by Anheuser Busch InBev ABI.BR , and still plans to reject the deal. LLOYD'S OF LONDON: American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG) AIG.N is in early talks to sell Lloyd's of London Ltd's SOLYD.UL insurance operations to Canada Pension Fund (CPPIB), the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. GLENCORE: Glencore Plc GLEN.L has agreed to sell a 30 percent stake and all of the gold from its Ernest Henry copper mine in Australia to Evolution Mining EVN.AX for A$880 million ($670 million), advancing the Swiss giant's effort to pay down debt. CAIRN ENERGY: ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP)' COP.N plan to sell its stake in an oil find off Senegal to Woodside Petroleum hit a speed-bump on Tuesday as a junior partner attempted to buy time to pre-empt the deal at the same time it announced an increase in the size of the field. The SNE joint venture's operator and 40 percent stakeholder, Britain's Cairn Energy PLC CNE.L , has said the field could start producing by 2020. UK BONDS: The Bank of England paid a high price to buy government bonds from investors on Tuesday, the latest sign that its plan to soften the Brexit hit to Britain's economy faces more of a challenge than initially thought. UK BANKS: British banks could lose a good number of European and domestic corporate customers in the aftermath of Britain's vote to leave the European Union in June, according to a private study released on Tuesday. OIL: Oil prices fell on Wednesday as an unexpected build in U.S. crude inventories weighed on markets, along with concerns that Chinese crude demand could falter as Beijing clamps down on alleged tax evasion in the oil industry. METALS: London copper hovered near its lowest in six weeks on Wednesday, with a stronger dollar hitting base metals and pushing zinc and tin away from their highest levels in more than a year. For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets
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