(Removes reference to Pendragon's full-year results in the table.
The company is scheduled to report results on March 12.)
Feb 11 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 index is seen opening 29
points higher at 7,100 on Monday, according to financial bookmakers.
* IMPERIAL BRANDS: Imperial Brands Plc is expected to announce
that Mark Williamson will step down as chairman of the company in the
coming months following the introduction of more stringent corporate
governance rules, The Times reported on Monday.
* SPORTS DIRECT: Britain's Sports Direct Plc has pulled its
offer to buy Patisserie Holdings Plc after just two days, the
Financial Times reported.
* OCADO: British online supermarket Ocado denied robots were
moving around its flagship complex at Andover in southern England when
firefighters tackled a blaze on Tuesday that wiped 1 billion pounds
off the group's stock market value.
* BP: BP Plc plans to begin a planned overhaul of a crude
distillation unit (CDU) at its 413,500-barrel-per-day Whiting,
Indiana, refinery in mid-February, about two weeks earlier than
expected, sources familiar with plant operations said on Friday.
* SMITH & NEPHEW: Britain's Smith & Nephew Plc has held
talks to buy U.S.-based medical equipment maker NuVasive in a deal
that would be worth more than $3 billion, the Financial Times reported
on Friday, citing people familiar with the talks.
* GOLD: Gold prices held firm on Monday, supported by worries over
a slowdown in global economic growth and uncertainties around
Sino-U.S. trade war, but a strong dollar limited the safe-haven
metal's appeal.
* OIL: Crude prices dipped early on Monday in Asia as U.S.
drilling activity picked up and as Russia's biggest oil producer
pressured President Vladimir Putin to end the supply cut deal with
Middle East-dominated producer club OPEC.
* The UK blue chip index closed 0.3 percent lower on Friday as
jitters over the China-U.S. trade dispute fed into fears of a slowdown
in the world economy, with bank and energy shares the hardest hit.
* UK CORPORATE DIARY
Acacia Mining Plc FY Earnings Release
* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on:
TODAY'S UK PAPERS
> Financial Times
> Other business headlines
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(Reporting by Samantha Machado in Bengaluru)
((Samantha.machado@thomsonreuters.com; Within UK +44 20 7542 1810;
Outside UK +918067499956; Reuters Messaging: Samantha.machado@thomsonreuters.com))