* SAINSBURY'S: British supermarket Sainsbury's reported a 9 percent fall in first-half profit on Thursday, a fourth straight decline, and a slowdown in quarterly sales growth as intense competition in the UK grocery market showed no sign of letting up.

* ARROW GLOBAL: Arrow Global Group reported higher revenue for the first nine months of 2017, as it bought more non-performing loans and non-core assets from banks in Europe, driven by the continued reform in the region's banking sector.

* BEAZLEY: Lloyd's of London insurer Beazley on Thursday increased the expected second-half pretax profit hit from natural catastrophes by $25 million to $175 million as a result of wildfires in California.

* FLYBE: British regional airline Flybe said on Thursday it would continue to work to keep costs down in the fall-out from last month's profit warning, as the increased cost of aircraft maintenance weighed on profits.

* LOOKERS: British car dealership chain Lookers said on Thursday that major carmakers were reducing their targets and boosting incentives in Britain as new car sales look set for their first annual decline since 2011.

* HIKMA: Hikma Pharmaceuticals Plc HIK.L on Thursday lowered 2017 revenue guidance for its generics business for a third time.

* HALFORDS: British bicycles to car parts retailer Halfords Group Plc on Thursday reported a smaller-than-expected half-year profit, hurt by higher costs resulting from a weaker pound.

* 3I INFRASTRUCTURE: British fund 3i Infrastructure 3I.L on Thursday posted an increase in net asset value (NAV) to 1.8 billion pounds ($2.4 billion) at 30 September, up from 1.7​ billion pounds at March 31.

* NATIONAL GRID: British power grid operator National Grid Plc reported a slightly worse-than-expected fall in half-year profit on Thursday hurt by weakness in its UK electricity transmission business.

* BURBERRY: British luxury brand Burberry will shift further up-market by focusing on leather goods and fashion and cutting sales to non-luxury stores, initially in the United States, under a plan by new Chief Executive Marco Gobbetti.

* HIKMA PHARMA-VECTURA GRP: Hikma and its partner Vectura are in dispute with the Food and Drug Administration over their plans to launch a generic copy of GlaxoSmithKline's GSK.L popular lung drug Advair in the U.S. market, delaying any eventual approval.

* BGEO GROUP: Georgia's BGEO Group Plc, which is planning to split its banking and investment businesses, reported a 20.3 percent fall in third-quarter profits on Wednesday.

* BOE: Banks might start to activate contingency plans and possibly move business away from Britain if there is no clarity on the UK departure from the European Union by next Spring, Bank of England policymaker Ian McCafferty said on Wednesday.

* BRITAIN HOUSEPRICES: House prices in Britain are no longer rising and are falling in London at their fastest pace since 2009, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said on Thursday, citing political worries and last week's Bank of England interest rate hike.

* GOLD: Gold prices held largely steady on Thursday after marking a near three-week high in the previous session, while palladium remained close to a more than 16-year peak touched on Wednesday.

* OIL: Oil prices held steady on Thursday after falling late in the previous session, supported by ongoing supply cuts led by OPEC and Russia.

* EX-DIVS: BP, GlaxoSmithKline and Whitbread will trade without entitlement to their latest dividend pay-out on Thursday, trimming 9.48 points off the FTSE 100 according to Reuters calculations.

* The UK blue chip index FTSE 100 Index rose 0.2 percent and closed at 7,529.72 points on Thursday, supported by gains among heavyweight consumer and commodity stocks, while housebuilders were dragged lower by a disappointing update from Persimmon.

* 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 Siju Varghese)