UK Stocks-Factors to watch on June 9 (updated)

AstraZeneca

Tue 07:38

Adds news items, updates futures

    June 9 (Reuters) - 
    Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE index is seen opening down on Tuesday, with futures FFIc1 down 0.09%.
  

    * GSK: GSK GSK.L 
    agreed
     to 
    acquire
     Nuvalent NUVL.O for $10.6 billion to boost its lung cancer portfolio.
  

    * BELLWAY: Bellway BWY.L said customer demand has 
    cooled
     after a positive start to the spring selling season, with rising building costs from higher fuel and energy prices adding to challenges in the housing sector.
  

    * MJ GLEESON: MJ Gleeson GLEG.L 
    projected
     annual adjusted pretax profit below market expectations, as a slowdown in construction delayed the sale of a site that accounts for about half of its forecast plot sales for the year.
  

    * FEVER-TREE DRINKS: Fever-Tree Drinks FEVR.L said it was 
    confident
     of meeting full-year market expectations, while increasing its share buyback.
  
* BP: Top BP BP.L investors and former executives said they remained in the dark about the precise circumstances that led to the departure of former chair Albert Manifold, the Financial Times reported. 
* ASTRAZENECA: AstraZeneca AZN.L said that patients lost 10.5% of their body weight after 26 weeks in a mid-stage trial of its experimental obesity pill, as the drugmaker seeks to challenge Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly in the fast-growing weight-loss market.
* SPENDING: Consumers in Britain increased their spending in May after reducing it in April, but their expenditure on travel dropped for a third month in a sign of caution over the economic impact of the Iran war, surveys showed.
* ECONOMY: The Confederation of British Industry cut its forecast for the country's economic growth and predicted unemployment would rise to its highest in over a decade as the Iran war pushes up energy prices and squeezes living standards.

    * COMMODITIES: Oil prices fell, copper prices were little changed, and gold prices firmed. 
     
* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: LIVE/
TODAY'S UK PAPERS
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(Compiled by Neeshita Beura, Roshni Srivastava in Bengaluru)
((Neeshita.Beura@thomsonreuters.com))