FTSE seen opening lower

LONDON (Reuters) - The FTSE 100 .FTSE is seen opening between 9 and 11 points lower, or down 0.2 percent, according to financial bookmakers, reversing the previous session's gains as investors look set to book profits after substantial gains on the index so far this week.

The FTSE ended 0.7 percent higher on Wednesday, and touched an intra-day high at levels not seen since September 2008, after a jump in Chinese factory growth and reassuring jobless data spurred demand for riskier assets.

The index is up 2.4 percent so far this week and is on track to post its best weekly gain since mid October.

Weakness on the FTSE is seen mirroring falls in Asia as Japanese shares closed lower while elsewhere in the region stocks edged down. Meanwhile on Wall Street overnight shares hit fresh 13-month highs, seen as offering some support to the FTSE.

A raft of corporate results from UK companies is seen giving direction to shares in the absence of any significant economic data from Britain on Thursday.

Data set for release from across the Atlantic include the U.S. Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) mortgage market index at 1200 GMT and the U.S. weekly jobless claims at 1:30 p.m.

(Reporting by Harpreet Bhal)