UK Stocks-Factors to watch on May 5

May 5 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE index is seen opening up by 25
points, or 0.4 percent, on Thursday, according to financial bookmakers. For more
on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on The UK blue chip index closed down 73.57 points, or 1.2 percent, at
6,112.02 points on Wednesday, as basic resources stocks extended the previous
day's losses and retailers came under pressure.
* SABMILLER: Australia's antitrust regulator on Thursday cleared beer giant
Anheuser Busch Inbev SA's ABI.BR planned $100-billion takeover of rival
SABMiller Plc SAB.L , saying the deal would not adversely affect the domestic
market.
SABMiller and Coca-Cola KO.N have agreed concessions with the South
African government to win approval for their plan to merge African soft drink
operations into what would be the continent's biggest Coke drinks bottler.

* RIO: Rio Tinto RIO.AX RIO.L said on Thursday it has no plans to expand
its iron ore infrastructure capacity in Australia beyond 360 million tonnes a
year.
Global miner Rio Tinto said it expects a tough macro operating environment
for the foreseeable future.
* ROYAL BANK OF CANADA: Royal Bank of Scotland RBS.L Chairman Howard
Davies said the state-backed bank was preparing for a potential phase of
economic instability following a referendum on Britain's membership of the
European Union.
* STANDARD CHARTERED: Standard Chartered STAN.L would risk a staff exodus
if it cut bonuses, Chairman John Peace said on Wednesday, responding to investor
anger over high pay when the bank's shares have tumbled and there will be no
final dividend for 2015.
* LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE GROUP: The New York Stock Exchange's owner ICE N>
has shelved plans to make a counterbid for London Stock Exchange LSE.L that
could have derailed the British firm's planned merger with Deutsche Boerse (DE: DB1Gn ).

* BARCLAYS: Barclays Plc BARC.L said on Wednesday it is selling shares
representing 12 percent of Barclays Africa Group BGAJ.J and that South Africa's
state pension fund would be an anchor investor.
* MAIL.RU: Hundreds of millions of hacked user names and passwords for email
accounts and other websites are being traded in Russia's criminal underworld, a
security expert told Reuters. The discovery of 272.3 million stolen accounts
included a majority of users of Mail.ru MAILRq.L , Russia's most popular email
service, among others, said Alex Holden, founder and chief information security
officer of Hold Security.
* BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO: The European Union's highest court on Wednesday
upheld a tough EU law that will standardise cigarette packs, ban menthol
flavouring and restrict e-cigarette advertising, paving the way for its adoption
this month and dealing a blow to Big Tobacco.
* RECKITT BENCKISER: South Korean retailer Lotte Mart stopped ordering
Reckitt Benckiser RB.L products on Wednesday along with some e-commerce sites,
after the British firm apologised for selling humidifier sterilizers linked to
deadly lung injuries.
* BHP BILLITON: Mining companies Vale SA VALE5.SA and BHP Billiton BLT.L
were hit with a 155 billion-real ($43.5 billion) civil lawsuit for the collapse
of a dam at a mine last year that killed 19 people and caused damage that
prosecutors said was comparable to BP 's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

* TULLOW: Production has restarted at Tullow Oil 's TLW.L offshore Jubilee
field in Ghana and it is pumping 30,000 barrels of crude per day, the company's
managing director in Ghana Charles Darku told an investor forum on Wednesday.

* EX-DIVS: BP Plc BP.L , Kingfisher Plc KGF.L and London Stock Exchange
Group Plc LSE.L will trade without entitlement to their latest dividend
pay-out on Thursday, trimming 5.78 points off the FTSE 100 according to Reuters
calculations
* UK REFERENDUM: John Malone's cable company Liberty Global LBTYA.O , which
also owns Virgin Media, is evaluating a potential contribution of up to 500,000
pounds ($724,550) to a campaign to keep Britain in Europe. UK CORPORATE DIARY:

BT Group PLC BT.L Q4 2016 BT Group PLC Earnings
Release
Smith & Nephew PLC SN.L Q1 2016 Smith & Nephew PLC
Trading Statement Release
RSA Insurance RSA.L Q1 2016 RSA Insurance Group PLC
Group PLC Trading Statement Release
Provident Financial PLC Interim Management Statement
Release
Inmarsat PLC ISA.L Q1 2016 Inmarsat PLC Earnings
Release
Lancashire LRE.L Q1 2016 Lancashire Holdings Ltd
Holdings Ltd Earnings Release
Sage Group PLC SGE.L Half Year 2016 Sage Group PLC
Earnings Release
WM Morrison MRW.L Q1 2016 WM Morrison Supermarkets
Supermarkets PLC PLC Trading Statement
Derwent London PLC DLN.L Q1 2016 Derwent London PLC
Business Update
BT Group PLC BT.L Q4 2016 BT Group PLC Earnings
Release
GW Pharmaceuticals GWP.L Half Year 2016 GW Pharmaceuticals
PLC PLC Earnings Release
Esure Group PLC ESUR.L Q1 2016 Esure Group PLC Earnings
Release
Beazley Plc BEZG.L Q1 2016 Beazley PLC Earnings
Release
Millennium & MLC.L Q1 2016 Millennium & Copthorne
Copthorne Hotels Hotels PLC Earnings Release
PLC

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