(Adds company news items and futures)
March 9 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE futures FFIc1 were down 0.07 pct ahead of the cash market open on Friday.
* GVC HOLDINGS: Online gambling firm GVC Holdings GVC.L , which has agreed to buy Britain's largest bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral LCL.L , said full-year net gaming revenue rose 17 percent, citing gains from the bwin.party businesses it bought in 2015. Building products distributor SIG Plc SHI.L posted a 4.3 percent rise in full-year pretax profit, helped by strength in mainland Europe. SHELL: Royal Dutch Shell RDSa.L is planning to build a truck loading facility at its Hazira liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on India's west coast as it looks to meet demand from industrial users, a top company official said on Friday. 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 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
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