(Adds company news items and futures)
July 27 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE index is seen opening 20 points higher at 7,684 on Friday, according to financial bookmakers, with futures FFIc1 up 0.28 percent ahead of the cash market open.
* BT: Britain's BT Group Plc BT.L reported a 1 percent rise in first-quarter core earnings to 1.8 billion pounds ($2.4 billion) thanks to its EE mobile unit and cost savings. PEARSON: British education publisher Pearson PSON.L said it was on track to return to underlying profit growth this year after online courses and demand in the United States helped it report better-than-expected first-half results. JUPITER: Asset manager Jupiter JUP.L posted first-half net outflows of 2.3 billion pounds ($3.01 billion) on Friday and said the operating environment was challenging. RECKITT BENCKISER: Reckitt Benckiser's RB.L quarterly like-for-like sales rose 4 percent helped by its Mead Johnson acquisition, as the consumer goods company shook off the effects of the previous year's cyber attack. ALLIED IRISH BANKS: Allied Irish Banks AIBG.I (AIB) reported steady first-half profits, lower bad loans and higher lending and capital on Friday as it continues to recover a decade after the country's banking crash. BHP-BP: BP Plc BP.L has agreed to buy U.S. shale oil and gas assets from global miner BHP Billiton BLT.L , BHP.AX for $10.5 billion, expanding the British oil major's footprint in oil-rich onshore basins in its biggest deal in nearly 20 years. MELROSE: British turnaround firm Melrose MRON.L is considering a series of sales of GKN (LON:GKN) businesses after clinching an 8 billion pound ($10.5 billion) hostile takeover of the aerospace and automotive parts supplier earlier this year, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. CENKOS SECURITIES: Activist investor Crystal Amber CRSL.L has told London-based stockbroker Cenkos Securities' CNKS.L chairman to put the business up for sale, Sky News reported on Thursday. GOLD: Gold prices edged up on Friday but stayed close to one-year lows, with investors waiting for data later in the day on U.S. economic growth. OIL: Oil prices slipped on Friday in quiet trading after three days of gains, but took support from Saudi Arabia halting crude transport through a key shipping lane, falling U.S. inventories and easing trade tensions between Washington and Europe. The UK blue chip FTSE 100 .FTSE index ended up 0.06 percent at 7,663.17 points on Thursday, as a drop in heavyweight oil stocks weighed on the index, which lagged a broader rally across European stocks as U.S.-EU trade tensions thawed. For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets
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