March 17 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 index is seen opening higher on Thursday, with futures inching up 0.44%.
* OCADO RETAIL: British online supermarket Ocado Retail on Thursday reported a 5.7% year-on-year fall in revenue in its latest quarter, which it said partly reflected a softening of the overall market.
* CINEWORLD: Britain's Cineworld said on Thursday it expects its performance to improve this year thanks to pent-up demand and a full slate of movies, after posting a smaller annual loss helped by the success of Marvel's "Spider-Man: No Way Home".
* ASTRAZENECA PLC: British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc will pay $775 million to settle a patent dispute with Japan's Chugai Pharmaceutical Co Ltd related to the ALS drug Ultomiris, it said on Thursday.
* ASTRAZENECA: Britain's medicines regulator said on Thursday it had approved AstraZeneca's antibody-based treatment to prevent COVID-19 in people whose immune response is poor.
* HARBOUR ENERGY: Harbour Energy, the British North Sea's biggest oil and gas producer, reported 2021 free cashflow of $678 million on Thursday as it reported its first full-year results after its merger with Premier Oil.
* DELIVEROO: Deliveroo said it aimed to reach breakeven in core earnings in around two years' time and predicted a 15-25% rise in the value of gross transactions on its platform this year, a slowdown from 70% in 2021 when it was boosted by lockdowns.
* OIL: Oil prices climbed after the International Energy Agency (IEA) said markets could lose three million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian crude and refined products from April.
* FTSE 100: London's FTSE 100 rose to near two-week highs on Wednesday as prospects of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine and Chinese stimulus lifted investor sentiment globally, while investors awaited the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy decision due later in the day.
* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on:
TODAY'S UK PAPERS
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> Other business headlines (Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil and Sinchita Mitra in Bengaluru)
