(Adds company news items and futures)
Aug 1 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 futures FFIc1 were down 0.5% ahead of
the cash market open on Thursday.
* LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE: London Stock Exchange LSE.L said it had agreed to
buy financial information firm Refinitiv in a $27 billion deal that will
transform the British company into a market data and analytics
giant. * BARCLAYS: Barclays BARC.L has upped its dividend payment by 20% as it
reported second-quarter profit in line with forecasts, thanks to a more
resilient performance at its trading unit and an absence of regulatory fines
that have blighted past earnings. * SHELL: Royal Dutch Shell's RDSa.L second-quarter profit slumped to a
30-month low due to lower oil and natural gas prices and refining margins,
falling far short of forecasts. * RIO TINTO: Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto RIO.AX RIO.L reported its
biggest first-half profit since 2014 and declared a bumper dividend, as red-hot
iron ore prices helped offset the impact of disruptions caused by a cyclone in
late March.
* SCHRODERS: British asset manager Schroders SDR.L said pretax profit fell
14% in the first half, hit by weak markets at the start of the year and outflows
of client cash.
* RSA: British insurer RSA RSA.L posted a 1% increase in its operating
profit in the first half of the year, in line with forecasts, driven by strong
performance in its general insurance business. * CAPITA: British business services group Capita CPI.L reported a 3.6%
fall in first-half pretax profit, hurt by a drop in new orders as it strives to
turn around its business amid a tough economic backdrop. * KIER GROUP: British contractor Kier Group Plc KIE.L warned its full-year
revenue would fall by 100 million pounds ($121.20 million), and named RPC
Group's Simon Kesterton as its new finance chief. * BRITAIN-EU: Britain is ramping up preparations for a no-deal Brexit by
spending an extra 2.1 billion pounds ($2.6 billion) to make sure the country is
ready to leave the European Union with or without a divorce deal at the end of
October. * PEARSON: British education company Pearson Plc PSON.L on Thursday said
it has notified customers of a data breach that resulted in unauthorized access
to about 13,000 school and university accounts, mainly in the United States.
* STANDARD CHARTERED: Standard Chartered PLC STAN.L exceeded forecasts
with a 3% increase in its first-half profit, but flagged trade tensions and a
monetary policy easing cycle as potential risks for the London-headquartered
lender. * WOODFORD: Neil Woodford's suspended Equity Income Fund has breached a 10%
cap on unlisted stocks after three of its holdings stopped trading on the
Guernsey exchange, though a spokesman said it was taking action to remedy the
situation. * OIL: Oil prices skidded on Thursday, declining for the first time in six
days, after the U.S. Federal Reserve dampened hopes for a string of interest
rate cuts and Sino-U.S. talks ended without apparent progress towards resolving
a bitter trade dispute. * GOLD: Gold prices dropped to two-week lows on Thursday after the U.S.
Federal Reserve cut rates by 25 basis points as expected but tampered market
expectations of a lengthy easing cycle, lifting the dollar to a two-year high.
* EX-DIVS: RELX REL.L will trade without entitlement to its latest
dividend pay-out on Thursday, trimming 1.02 points off the FTSE 100 according to
Reuters calculations
* London's FTSE 100 slipped on Wednesday from this week's 11-month high, as
wealth manager St. James's Place, homebuilder Taylor Wimpey and mortgage lender
Lloyds fell on the back of results, overshadowing an upbeat forecast from
clothing retailer Next. * For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on:
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