(Adds futures, news items)
Aug 5 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE index is seen opening 2 points higher at 6,038 on Wednesday, according to financial bookmakers, with futures FFIc1 up 0.5% ahead of cash markets open.
* METRO BANK: Britain's Metro Bank MTRO.L swung to a 240 million pounds ($313.92 million) loss for the first half of the year, as provisions to cover loan losses due to the coronavirus crisis wiped out its profits. LEGAL & GENERAL: British life insurer Legal & General LGEN.L posted a 2% drop in first-half operating profit. COCA COLA HBC: Soft drinks bottler Coca Cola HBC AG CCH.L said its performance recovered steadily from April lows as its markets gradually reopened from coronavirus-led lockdowns. BATS: British American Tobacco BATS.L named Guy Meldrum, the regional director of its Asia-Pacific and Middle East business, as the new head of its U.S. business, Reynolds American. WILLIAM HILL: British gambling company William Hill WMH.L reported a better-than-expected first-half profit while announcing 119 of UK betting shops closed by coronavirus lockdowns would not reopen as it combines its online and retail businesses. HASTINGS: Finnish insurer Sampo SAMPO.HE and South Africa's Rand Merchant Investment (RMI) RMIJ.J have made a recommended cash offer worth 1.84 billion euros ($2.17 billion) to buy British auto insurer Hastings HSTG.L , Sampo said. BANKS: Britain's banks took a gloomier view than almost all their European peers in their second quarter earnings. OIL: Oil prices fell for the first time in four days, pulling back from as much as five-month highs as mounting coronavirus cases worldwide and in the United States undercut market confidence in a pickup in fuel demand. The UK blue-chip index .FTSE ended flat on Tuesday as mixed earnings and rising friction between the United States and China weighed. For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: LIVE/
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