April 8 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE index is seen opening down 9 points at 7,438 on Monday, according to financial bookmakers.
* DEBENHAMS: Mike Ashley's Sports Direct SPD.L launched an attack on Debenhams DEB.L top executives, accusing them of a "sustained programme of falsehoods". Sports Direct has called for trading in Debenhams shares to be suspended, for two board members to undergo lie detector tests, and asked for industry regulators to investigate how the company is being run. https://on.ft.com/2uQguAC
* SHELL: China's Sinopec Corp 0386.HK has agreed with Royal Dutch Shell RDSa.L to jointly study a shale oil block in east China's Shengli oilfield, the Chinese state oil and gas major said on Monday. Britain proposed new online safety laws on Monday that would slap penalties on social media companies and technology firms if they fail to protect their users from harmful content. TESCO: Tesco TSCO.L is working on a new loyalty scheme in the mould of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) Prime, which would give its tens of millions of shoppers greater incentives to sign up to the company's bank and mobile phone services BHP: Mining company BHP Group BHPB.L , BHP.AX is poised to cut over 700 white-collar jobs, The Australian newspaper reported, adding that the process could start as early as next week. EARTHPORT: Britain's Competition and Markets Authority on Friday said it was investigating Visa (NYSE:V) Inc's V.N planned acquisition of payment company Earthport Plc EPO.L to gauge if the deal would reduce competition in the country. The UK blue chip index held firmly at its six-month high and closed 0.6 percent higher on Friday, marking a strong finish to the week as better-than-expected U.S. jobs data eased fears of a global economic slowdown while the pound weakened on growing Brexit jitters and lifted exporters. For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: LIVE/
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