(Adds futures, company items)
May 9 (Reuters) - Britain’s FTSE 100 index is seen opening up 7 points on Wednesday, according to financial bookmakers, with futures up 0.1 percent ahead of the cash market open.
* FOX: Twenty-First Century Fox Inc's Chief Executive James Murdoch would not move to Disney if Fox deal closes, WSJ reported. on.wsj.com/2rvmrla
* SHELL: Royal Dutch Shell Plc's corporate venture arm and GXP Investments led a $7.6 million investment in energy storage startup Axiom Energy to expand its service to grocery stores and cold-storage facilities, Bloomberg reported. bloom.bg/2I8e7hN
* BURBERRY: Albert Frere is selling his entire stake in Burberry, the Belgian billionaire’s Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL) said on Tuesday, after a period of management upheaval at the British fashion house.
* VODAFONE: Vodafone Group has agreed an 18.4 billion euro ($21.8 billion) deal to buy cable TV company Liberty Global’s operations in Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.
* JD WETHERSPOON: Pub operator JD Wetherspoon reported a 3.5 percent increase in third-quarter comparable sales on Wednesday, a touch slower than the 4 percent growth seen a year ago due to this year’s later May bank holiday.
* SERICA ENERGY: Britain’s Serica Energy said it is looking into how renewed sanctions on Iran would impact a British gas field which it operates in partnership with the Iranian Oil Company (UK) Limited.
* IMPERIAL BRANDS: Tobacco company Imperial Brands reported lower first-half sales and profits on Wednesday, hurt by a tough pricing environment and overall market declines, but results were slightly ahead of estimates.
* COMPASS: Compass Group Plc, the world’s biggest catering firm, on Wednesday said organic revenue grew 4.8 percent in the first half of the year, driven by strong performance in North America.
* PROVIDENT FINANCIAL: British sub-prime lender Provident Financial said on Wednesday its recovery plans were on track and would deliver 2018 results in line with internal plans.
* G4S: G4S, the world’s biggest security group, said it expected growth to accelerate in the second half of the year after organic revenue fell 2 percent in the first quarter due to tough comparatives with last year.
* GREGGS: British baker Greggs warned on Wednesday that underlying profit for 2018 was likely to fall short of expectations and be at a similar level to 2017, held back by uncertainty over consumer demand.
* TUI: Europe’s largest travel and tourism group TUI Group said summer trading was good and approved construction of another cruise ship for its Hapag-Lloyd cruise business as it seeks to take advantage of booming demand for holidays at sea.
* GOLD: prices slipped in early trade on Wednesday, as the dollar regained ground after briefly dipping earlier following U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.
* OIL: Oil prices rose more than 2 percent on Wednesday, with Brent hitting a 3-1/2-year high, after U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned a nuclear deal with Iran and announced the “highest level” of sanctions against the OPEC member.
* FTSE 100 ended flat at 7,565.75 points on Tuesday after a public holiday despite dealmaking dominated activity in UK stocks, with gains in Shire Plc and Virgin Money.
* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets
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