* LLOYDS: The British government has reduced its holding in Lloyds Banking Group PLC to less than 1 percent, putting the lender on track to be in full private ownership within weeks.

* BARCLAYS: Barclays reported its first quarter profit more than doubled on Friday, driven by lower losses in its non-core unit even as the British bank booked a one-off charge on its Africa business.

* BREXIT: As Britain prepares to negotiate its EU departure, a number of banks are likely to decide within two months where to set up new continental bases to make sure they can keep serving clients in the bloc after Brexit.

* BARCLAYS: British bank Barclays Plc faces shareholder revolt over whistleblower inquiry after a corporate governance firm advised shareholders not to back his re-election to the board, The Times reported on Friday. (http://bit.ly/2qdvJ63)

* BP: BP Plc was restoring production on Thursday afternoon at two crude distillation units at its 413,500 barrel per day (bpd) Whiting, Indiana, refinery after performing work on an electrical power substation, said sources familiar with plant operations.

* OLD MUTUAL: Britain's Old Mutual Plc said it would sell its 26 percent stake in Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Ltd to Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd KTKM.NS for about 12.93 billion rupees ($201.7 million).

* MARKS: British retailer Marks & Spencer is to trial an online grocery shopping service this year, it said on Thursday, conceding it could no longer ignore the fastest growing segment of the market.

* ROYAL BANK: Royal Bank of Scotland has reached an out-of-court settlement with another batch of shareholders who alleged they were misled during a 12 billion-pound ($15.5 billion) cash call in 2008, the state-owned bank said on Thursday.

* BHP: BHP Billiton, is advancing with the sale of its small Cerro Colorado copper mine in Chile and there are a number of interested parties, although finalizing the deal will likely take some months, the mine's union said on Thursday.

* GOLD: Gold was little changed on Friday and poised for the biggest weekly fall in seven weeks as investors sought out higher returns than those from holding the non-interest bearing yellow metal by buying into riskier assets.

* OIL: Oil prices stabilised on Friday but were on track for a second straight weekly loss on concerns that an OPEC-led production cut has failed to significantly tighten an oversupplied market.

* The UK blue chip index closed down 0.7 percent at 7,237.17 points on Thursday, snapping a three-day winning streak as miners and ex-dividends weighed.

* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets

TODAY'S UK PAPERS

> Financial Times

> Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit http://topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : http://topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Harish Bhaskar)