News: RIO UPDATE 1-UK Stocks-Factors to watch on Dec. 24

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Dec 24 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 futures index FFIc1 was up 0.45% ahead of the cash market open on Thursday.

• JAGUAR LAND ROVER: Luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover has not seen any impact so far from issues at UK ports, its parent Tata Motors TAMO.NS said, even as many countries cut transport ties with Britain due to a fast-spreading new variant of the coronavirus.
• VODAFONE: India has challenged in Singapore an international arbitration court's verdict against it over a $2 billion tax claim involving Vodafone Group Plc VOD.L , a senior government official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
• RIO TINTO: Rio Tinto Ltd (RIO) and Indigenous Australians said they had taken initial steps towards rebuilding their relationship after the miner destroyed sacred Aboriginal caves in Western Australia in May.
• BREXIT: Britain and the European Union were on the cusp of striking a narrow trade deal on Thursday, swerving away from a chaotic finale to a Brexit split that has shaken the 70-year project to forge European unity from the ruins of World War Two.
• GOLD: Gold prices edged up as the dollar eased and investors bet on further U.S. stimulus though President Donald Trump threatened to veto a long-awaited pandemic relief bill.
• OIL: Oil climbed for a second day, in light holiday trade as a drawdown in U.S. stockpiles of crude and gasoline raised demand hopes, while hints of an imminent Brexit deal raised investors' risk appetite.
• The UK blue-chip index .FTSE closed 0.7% higher on Wednesday although a jump in the pound kept the dollar earners' gains in check . The domestically focused FTSE 250 .FTMC , considered a proxy to Brexit sentiment, ended at session high, up 1.7% after a senior European diplomat told Reuters that a UK-EU agreement was in "final stages"
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