May 23 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 index is seen opening 19points lower at 7,858 on Wednesday, according to CMC Markets, with futuresdown 0.46 percent ahead of the cash market open.
* M&S: Britain's Marks & Spencer said on Wednesday it urgently hadto modernise or risk fading away as it reported a second straight decline inannual profit and booked a 321 million pounds ($430 million) charge for a storeclosure programme.
* ZPG: Britain's ZPG, which runs property website Zoopla and isbeing bought by U.S. private equity firm Silver Lake for 2.2 billion pounds ($3billion), posted a 33 percent rise in first-half profit as listings grew on itsplatforms.
* SEVERN TRENT: British water utility Severn Trent Plc posted a 4percent rise in full-year profit on Wednesday, as its Dee Valley Water businessand higher revenue offset the impact of changes in business rates andcosts.
* BRITVIC: British soft drink company Britvic Plc said on Wednesdayits half-year revenue rose 4.5 percent to 733.2 million pounds as it sold moreno- or low-sugar drinks during the period.
* BABCOCK: British engineer Babcock said it expected to deliver lowmid-single digit organic revenue growth and stable margins in 2018/19 afterinternational sales and a restructuring helped the group to hit its annualtargets.
* BANK OF ENGLAND: Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said on Tuesday heexpected Britain's economy would bounce back from a weak start to the year whenit was hit by heavy snowstorms, keeping the prospect of higher interest rates onthe table.
* SHELL: Top investors in Royal Dutch Shell on Tuesday put pressureon the oil and gas giant to commit to hard targets to reduce greenhouse gasemissions to battle climate change.
* BARCLAYS: British lender Barclays is exploring a potential mergerwith rival banks, including Standard Chartered, the Financial Timesreported citing two people close to the matter.
* FACEBOOK: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sailed through a grillingfrom EU lawmakers about the social network's data policies as lengthy questionsleft the 34-year-old American little time to answer.
* VEDANTA: At least nine people were killed in India's Tamil Nadu state onTuesday when police fired at violent protesters calling for the closure of acopper smelter run by Vedanta Resources, authorities said.
* OIL: Oil prices edged lower on Wednesday with the possibility of higherOPEC output weighing on the market, although geopolitical risks are expected tokeep prices near multi-year highs.
* The UK blue chip index closed 0.2 points higher at 7,877.45 on Tuesday, asshares in financials and miners rose further, triggering anticipations it couldsoon reach the 8,000 points benchmark.
* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets
TODAY'S UK PAPERS
> Financial Times
> Other business headlinesMultimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for:* 3000 Xtra : visit http://topnews.session.rservices.com* For Top News : http://topnews.reuters.com(Reporting by Radhika Rukmangadhan in Bengaluru)
