(Adds company news item and updates futures)
Dec 24 (Reuters) - Britain’s FTSE 100 futures were up 0.1% pre-market on Tuesday.
* TESCO: Australian clothing retailer Cotton On Group on Tuesday said it is investigating a Chinese supplier after British supermarket operator Tesco PLC suspended ties with the same supplier due to fears of the use of forced prison labour.
* CENTAMIN: Centamin Plc on Monday won approval to give its Canadian suitor Endeavour Mining more time to make a firm takeover offer, as shareholder pressure mounted on the London-listed gold miner to engage in talks.
* OIL: Oil prices edged higher in thin pre-Christmas trading after Russia’s energy minister said cooperation with OPEC to support the market would continue and as analysts forecast a second weekly decline in U.S. crude inventories.
* GOLD: Gold prices rose to their highest in a month-and-a-half, as soft economic data out of the United States and concerns about an interim Sino-U.S. trade deal lent support to the safe-haven bullion.
* The UK blue-chip index closed 0.5% higher on Monday in holiday-thinned trading, while midcaps hovered near all-time highs.
* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on:
TODAY’S UK PAPERS
> Financial Times
> Other business headlines (Reporting by Tanishaa Nadkar in Bengaluru)
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