UPDATE 1-UK Stocks-Factors to watch on March 7

(Adds futures, company news items)

March 7 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE index is seen opening down 28 points, or 0.5 percent lower on Monday, according to financial bookmakers, with futures FFIc1 down 0.23 percent ahead of the cash market open. For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on The UK blue chip index closed 1.1 percent higher on Friday at 6,199.43, as Britain's mining index climbed to a four-month high, boosted by a rally in the prices of major industrial metals. GSK: GlaxoSmithKline Plc GSK.L said its asthma drug, Nucala, which is already approved in the United States and Europe, showed a similar safety profile in a long-term study compared with previous studies. CENTRICA: Centrica CNA.L said on Friday new proposals from the British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) would allow more flexibility in selling gas from its Rough gas storage site beneath the North Sea. BNP PARIBAS: BNP Paribas BNPP.PA plans to grow its corporate and institutional bank (CIB) business in London, Chief Executive Jean-Laurent Bonnafe was quoted as saying by a French trade union. BNP Paribas has said it aims to grab market share from rivals pulling back from investment banking even as its moves ahead with its own cuts. OLD MUTUAL: Old Mutual OML.L , an Anglo-South African financial services company, said on Monday it was considering all options as part of a strategic review it announced in November, but that it had not yet made any decision. News reported on Saturday that Old Mutual was plotting a 9 billion pounds ($12.8 billion) break-up that could trigger a takeover battle for the company's various operations. MULBERRY: British luxury brand Mulberry MUL.L said on Monday it had appointed Neil Ritchie as its new financial director. FASTJET: African budget airline Fastjet Plc FJET.L warned that results for the year would be materially below market expectations, citing challenge conditions in the domestic aviation market. BREXIT: The chief executive of German carmaker Daimler DAIGn.DE , Dieter Zetsche, said on Friday that a British exit from the European Union, or 'Brexit', would be economically damaging for Europe, not just Britain. Leaving the free trade body would cause a "significant economic downturn for all parties involved, mostly for Great Britain, but very much for the rest of Europe as well," Zetsche said at a Mercedes-Benz event in Portugal. BREXIT: The director general of the British Chambers of Commerce has been suspended after he called for Britain to leave the European Union, against the wishes of most of the organisation's members, the Financial Times reported on Saturday. PENSION REFORMS: British finance minister George Osborne has dropped plans for a pensions overhaul which had run into opposition in his Conservative Party, already split over the country's European Union membership referendum, media reports said. UK FACTORIES: A slump at British factories has bottomed out but a group representing the sector also said it was cutting its growth forecasts for 2016 and warned of the potential drag from the country's European Union referendum. CHINA: China aims to keep its economy growing by at least 6.5 percent over the next five years while pushing hard to create more jobs and restructure inefficient industries, Premier Li Keqiang said on Saturday. OIL: Oil prices jumped on Monday, extending a rally that has lifted crude benchmarks by more than a third from this year's lows, as tightening supply and an improving global outlook strengthened the sentiment for a market recovery. COPPER: London copper fell on Monday from four-month highs hit on Friday as traders took profits following last week's rally on concerns that prices had overshot fundamental demand. UK PAPERS