April 23 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE index is
seen opening 27 points lower at 6,911 points on Friday,
according to financial bookmakers.
* ANGLO AMERICAN: Anglo American Plc AAL.L has not kept
workers fully informed of plans to restart a coal mine in
Queensland nearly a year after a blast injured five people, a
union official said, but the company called the comments
unfounded. * CONSUMER SENTIMENT: British consumer sentiment rose to its
highest since the start of the COVID pandemic this month as the
economy reopened partially, a closely watched survey showed, but
the increase was smaller than economists had expected.
* ASTRAZENECA: Australia's Minister for Trade has urged
AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) AZN.L to dispatch 1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses
to Papua New Guinea amid concerns about the spread of the virus
there, saying the EU had pledged no hindrance to the exports.
* ASTRAZENECA: Britain's medicines regulator on Thursday
said there had been 168 major blood clots following a dose of
AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, a rate of 7.9 clots per million
doses, a jump in incidence from the previous week's figure.
* ASTRAZENECA: The European Commission said on Wednesday no
decision had yet been taken on whether to launch legal action
against AstraZeneca, after Ireland's health minister said the
case had been initiated.
* PEARSON: Education group Pearson Plc PSON.L said on
Thursday Chairman Sidney Taurel intends to retire and step down
from the board no later than next year's annual general meeting.
* FIRSTGROUP: British transport operator FirstGroup Plc
FGP.L will announce on Friday the sale of its U.S.-based
businesses FirstStudent and FirstTransit to funds managed by EQT
Infrastructure for about $4.5 billion, Sky News editor Mark
Kleinman said in a tweet. * BOE: The Bank of England published details of
communications between former prime minister David Cameron and
officials at the central bank relating to failed finance firm
Greensill Capital which Cameron served as an adviser.
* REGULATOR: Britain's financial regulator said on Thursday
it will rethink how consumers should be protected after a surge
in online scams since people were forced to work from home due
to COVID-19 restrictions. * OIL: Oil prices rose on hopes of a fuel demand recovery in
the United States and Europe as economic growth picks up and
lockdowns ease, but worries about India's raging second wave of
COVID-19 cases kept a lid on gains. * COPPER: Copper prices were on track for their third
straight week of gains, as a weaker dollar made greenback-priced
metals cheaper and more appealing to holders of other
currencies. * Britain's FTSE 100 ended higher on Thursday on higher
retail stocks as last week saw a jump in footfalls and a weaker
pound, while mid-caps rose to their best day in two weeks led by
gains in construction company Morgan Sindall. For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please
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