May 22 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE index is seen opening 21 points higher at 7,350 on Wednesday, according to financial bookmakers, with futures FFIc1 up 0.29% ahead of the cash market open.
* ACACIA MINING: Acacia Mining Plc ACAA.L said on Wednesday it continued to be excluded from discussions between Canadian miner Barrick Gold Corp ABX.TO and the Government of Tanzania with regard to a tax dispute.
IG GROUP: Online financial trading platform IG Group Holdings Plc IGG.L on Wednesday forecast a sharp fall in full-year net trading revenue and operating profit, saying it was continuing to suffer from low levels of financial market volatility.
SUPERDRY: Fashion retailer Superdry SDRY.L appointed Nick Gresham as interim chief financial officer on Wednesday to succeed Ed Barker, who resigned on April 2 after the return of its founder Julian Dunkerton as interim boss.
Royal Mail: Royal Mail Plc RMG.L on Wednesday slashed its dividend by 40% and said it would invest a further 1.8 billion pounds ($2.29 billion) in its UK postal service over the next five years in hopes of turning the business around.
MARKS & SPENCER: Britain's Marks & Spencer MKS.L reported a 10% fall in full-year profit, a third straight decline, along with falls in quarterly underlying sales of both clothing and food, showing the pain of its latest attempt at a multi-year turnaround.
PARAGON BANKING: Paragon Banking Group PARA.L reported a jump in first-half underlying profit, driven by a surge in Mortgage and commercial lending volumes.
BABCOCK: British engineering services group Babcock BAB.L said on Wednesday it expected revenue and underlying operating profit to fall in 2019/2020 during what it expects to be a "challenging" year.
SSE: British energy supplier SSE Plc SSE.L on Wednesday missed analysts' expectations for annual profit and warned of another hit to results in 2019 as it battled stiff competition and rising costs.
BHP: Global miner BHP Group BHPB.L BHP.AX on Wednesday said it plans to expand its nickel sulphide operations amid an expected boom in demand for the material in electric vehicle batteries.
ACACIA: Canadian miner Barrick Gold Corp ABX.TO said on Tuesday it has proposed to acquire all of the shares it does not already own in Acacia Mining Plc ACAA.L through a share-for-share exchange of 0.153 Barrick shares for each ordinary share of Acacia.
METRO BANK: Metro Bank MTRO.L escaped a potential investor challenge at its annual meeting on Tuesday, but there were sizeable votes against several of its most senior directors.
The UK blue chip index closed up 0.25% at 7,328.92 on Tuesday, helped by a rally in homebuilders amid news of a proposed parliamentary vote on a second Brexit referendum and gains in Asia-facing stocks after the United States relaxed restrictions on China's Huawei. For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: LIVE/
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