UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Jan. 9

Jan 9 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE index is seen opening 16 points higher at 7,591

on Thursday, according to financial bookmakers.

* TESCO: Thailand's state-owned energy firm PTT Pcl PTT.BK said neither it nor its retail unit were interested in bidding for Tesco Plc's TSCO.L assets in Asia.

* CIIA CODE: Internal auditors should have direct access to top company bosses to help avoid Carillion-style corporate crashes, a new industry code said on Wednesday. The code from the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors (CIIA) aims to restore credibility in internal auditors' ability to be the "eyes and ears" of boards to stamp out poor governance and misconduct.

* RETAIL SPENDING: British shoppers cut back on spending in late 2019, rounding off the worst year since at least the mid-1990s for retail sales as measured by an industry group which blamed uncertainty about Brexit and last month's election for the slump.

* GOLD: Gold prices edged higher as investors preferred to stay put with safe-haven assets even though the chances of an escalation in U.S.-Iran conflict waned after the two sides softened their stance.

* OIL: Oil prices climbed after a rocket attack on Baghdad triggered fresh concern over the potential for conflict in the Middle East, a day after markets were roiled by an Iranian missile strike on Iraqi bases hosting U.S. forces.

* EX-DIVS: Aveva Group AVV.L will trade without entitlement to their latest dividend pay-out on Thursday, trimming 0.04 points off the FTSE 100 according to Reuters calculations

* London's main index recouped almost all its earlier losses on Wednesday as markets hoped flaring tensions between the United States and Iran would not escalate further, while midcaps slipped as worries of a hard Brexit resurfaced.

* UK CORPORATE DIARY:

Card Factory

CARDC.L

Trading Update

Dunelm

DNLM.L

Trading Update

Hilton Food Group

HFG.L

Trading Update

Nichols

NICL.L

Trading Update

Robert Walters

RWA.L

Q4 Trading Update

Tesco

TSCO.L

Q3 Trading Update

Marks & Spencer

MKS.L

Q3 Trading Update

Naked Wines

WINEW.L

Christmas Trading Update

TODAY'S UK PAPERS > Financial Times PRESS/FT > Other business headlines PRESS/GB

(Reporting by Shanima A in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

((shanima.a@thomsonreuters.com; shanima.a.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net ; Within UK +44 20 7542 1810; Outside UK+91 80 6749 3167; ;))

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