March 9 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE index is seen opening 2 points higher on Friday, according to financial bookmakers.
* SHELL: Royal Dutch Shell Plc RDSa.L and U.S. private equity firm Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Group LP BX.N are working on a joint $10 billion bid for BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) Plc's BLT.L U.S. shale assets, Sky News said on Thursday. Dutch Shell is selling out of the ageing Draugen field in Norway and is also offering small stakes in a number of other fields, according to a document seen by Reuters. Aramco signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Thursday to pursue international gas opportunities with Royal Dutch Shell. OIL: Crude oil futures rose on Friday as Asian stock markets gained on news that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump. GOLD: Gold prices extended losses into a third session on Friday as the dollar strengthened against the yen on hopes of easing tensions between the United States and North Korea and ahead of U.S. non-farm payroll data later in the day. The UK blue chip index closed up 0.63 percent Thursday, but lagged European peers as falling metal prices hit commodity stocks and a number of British 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
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