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Nov 24 - Britain's FTSE 100 index is seen opening 37 points higher at 6,371 on Tuesday, according to financial bookmakers.

* ASTRAZENECA: AstraZeneca said on Monday its COVID-19 vaccine was 70% effective in pivotal trials and could be up to 90% effective, giving the world's fight against the global pandemic a third new weapon that can be cheaper to make, easier to distribute and faster to scale-up than rivals.

* GREENCORE: Food group Greencore said on Monday it plans to raise cash by issuing new shares after reporting an 81% plunge in annual profit due to the COVID-19 crisis.

* JD SPORTS: JD Sports is in exclusive talks with British department store chain Debenhams over a potential rescue takeover, the Times reported on Monday.

* ROYAL DUTCH SHELL: Royal Dutch Shell PLC may begin the permanent shutdown of its 211,146 barrel-per-day Convent, Louisiana, refinery early next week, people familiar with plant operations said on Monday.

* VODAFONE: Vodafone said on Monday that operations on its German mobile network were returning to normal after the failure of control equipment caused a widespread outage lasting more than three hours.

* GOLD: Gold slipped as progress on a COVID-19 vaccine and a federal agency's approval of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's transition to the White House bolstered risk appetite, denting the bullion's safe-haven appeal.

* OIL: Brent crude prices hit their highest levels since March as news of a third promising vaccine candidate spurred hopes of a quick recovery in oil demand.

* The UK blue-chip index closed 0.3% lower on Monday.

* UK CORPORATE DIARY:

Pennon Group Plc HY earnings

Cranswick Plc HY earnings

Compass Group Plc FY earnings

Pets at Home Group Plc HY trading statement

UDG Healthcare Plc FY earnings

AO World Plc HY earnings

Intertek Group Plc Trading statement

Caledonia Investments Plc HY earnings

* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on:

TODAY'S UK PAPERS

> Financial Times

> Other business headlines

(Reporting by Priyanshi Mandhan; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)

((Priyanshi.Mandhan@thomsonreuters.com;))