Britain's FTSE 100 CURRENCYCOM:UK100 index is seen opening up on Thursday, with futures ICEEUR:Z1! up 0.82%.
* BP: BP's LSE:BP. Castrol lubricants business is attracting interest from companies such as India's Reliance Industries NSE:RELIANCE1!, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
* SHEIN IPO: This time last year Britain was mounting a charm offensive on online retailer Shein, with ministers saying they had conversations with the seller of $5 t-shirts about the benefits of a London listing.
* BRITISH PENSION SCHEMES: Some British pension schemes will be told to merge to become 'megafunds' with at least 25 billion pounds ($34 billion) of assets by 2030, the government said on Thursday, part of its wider drive to channel more investment into the UK economy.
* OIL: Oil prices rose after a U.S. court blocked most of President Donald Trump's tariffs from taking effect, while the market was watching out for potential new U.S. sanctions curbing Russian crude flows and an OPEC+ decision on hiking output in July.
* GOLD: Gold touched a more than one-week low.
* METALS: London copper prices edged higher on Thursday.
* EX-DIVS: Severn Trent LSE:SVT, National Grid LSE:NG. , Marks & Spencer LSE:MKS, Hilton Foods LSE:HFG, Renold LSE:RNO , Fuller Smith LSE:FSTA, Informa LSE:INF , and Hill & Smith LSE:HILS will trade without entitlement to its latest dividend pay-out on Thursday.
* FTSE 100: The UK blue-chip index CURRENCYCOM:UK100 closed down 0.6% on Wednesday as investors parsed a mixed bag of corporate earnings.
* UK CORPORATE DIARY:
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SMMT car production data
LSE:AUTO
FY results
April
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