(Updates futures, adds company news item)
Oct 10 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE index is seen opening up 20-24 points, or 0.3 percent, on Monday, according to financial bookmakers, with futures FFIc1 up 0.28 percent ahead of the cash market open.
* The UK blue chip index closed up 0.6 percent on Friday at 7,044.39, with concerns about a further fall in the sterling after a plunge to a 31-year low seen as helping internationally-exposed stocks. MITIE: British outsourcing group Mitie MTO.L named Phil Bentley as its new chief executive, announcing that incumbent Ruby McGregor-Smith would be stepping down after over nine years this December. INTERSERVE: British support services and construction firm Interserve Plc IRV.L said it had decided to retain equipment services unit RMDK as a core part of its business, following the conclusion of a strategic review that started in February. UK PROPERTY: The asset management arm of insurer Swiss Life SLHN.S is buying Mayfair Capital, a London-based property investment and management company with a portfolio valued at around 1 billion pounds ($1.24 billion), Mayfair said on Monday. WILLIAM HILL: Canadian online gambling company Amaya Inc AYA.TO AYA.O and British bookmaker William Hill Plc WMH.L said they were in talks to combine in a merger of equals, confirming a Reuters report about the discussions earlier on Friday. BAE SYSTEMS: BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc, a unit of BAE Systems PLC BAES.L , is being awarded a $618 million contract for Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II rockets for the U.S. military and the governments of Iraq, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Jordan, and Australia, the Pentagon said on Friday. BHP: Power is unlikely to be restored to the area near BHP Billiton's BHP.AX , BLT.L Olympic Dam copper mine in South Australia before Monday, nearly two weeks after a massive outage forced it to shut down, power supplier ElectraNet said on Friday. SHELL: Royal Dutch Shell RDSa.L signed a preliminary memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran's National Petrochemical Company on Sunday for cooperation in the petrochemical industry, the Iranian oil ministry's news agency SHANA reported. RANDGOLD: Randgold Resources RRS.L said on Sunday that it is seeking to resolve a tax dispute with the Malian government, adding that the disagreement has not affected operations at its three mines in the West African country. ASTRAZENECA: The failure of Bristol-Myers Squibb's BMY.N blockbuster Opdivo immunotherapy in previously untreated lung cancer patients has opened up the market for AstraZeneca AZN.L , its chief executive believes. SVG CAPITAL: U.S. private equity firm HabourVest offered to buy smaller rival SVG Capital SVI.L via an asset purchase deal instead of an $1.35 billion direct cash offer, as it looks to trump an already accepted offer from Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) GS.N and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. said separately it had "noted" HarbourVest's statement but had "received no offer" and there "can be no certainty that any firm offer will be effected". UK CHALLENGER BANKS: Top bosses of Britain's challenger banks will this week renew calls for ministers to ease tax and regulatory burdens on the sector when they hold talks at the Treasury, Sky News reported, adding that bosses of Aldermore ALD.L , OneSavings Bank OSBO.L , Secure Trust Bank STBS.L and Shawbrook SHAW.L will meet Simon Kirby, the City Minister, on Monday. BREXIT: Britain's government needs to immediately rule out leaving the European Union without securing preferential access to the bloc's single market, or investment will suffer, the head of a leading business organisation said on Saturday. BREXIT: Non-EU Norway has rejected a British government proposal to formalise work on a post-Brexit free trade agreement between the two countries, financial daily Dagens Naeringsliv reported on Monday, quoting unnamed sources. MATTHEW: A catastrophe modelling firm slashed its estimate for insurance losses from Hurricane Matthew on Friday, as the storm skirted Florida but failed to make landfall. Kinetic Analysis had estimated the insured losses on Thursday at $25 billion, but cut its forecast to $4 billion on Friday morning, a spokesman told Reuters by telephone. GLOBAL ECONOMY: World finance leaders issued fresh warnings about economic stability risks on Friday amid worries about a massive U.S. fine for Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) destabilizing Germany's largest bank, a sharp fall in the British pound and weak global growth. UK ECONOMY: Britain's economy appears to be losing steam, with major business surveys showing a marked slowdown in the services sector and boardrooms beset by doubt about the future following the country's vote to leave the European Union. UK NUCLEAR: Britain's government is working to find ways to get domestic pension funds to invest in new nuclear power, rail and broadband projects ahead of a mid-year budget statement next month, the Sunday Telegraph reported late on Saturday. OIL: Oil prices fell on Monday over doubts that an OPEC-led plan to cut output would rein in a global oversupply that has dogged markets for over two years. METALS: London nickel rose on Monday as Chinese markets returned after a week-long break and traders bought the metal, which fell last week when Indonesian officials said they were considering reinstating nickel ore exports. For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets
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