(Adds company news items and futures)
April 18 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE index is expected to open 20points lower at 7,451 on Thursday, according to financial bookmakers, while FTSE100 futures .FFIc1 were down 0.11 percent ahead of the cash market open.
* INTU PROPERTIES: British shopping centre operator Intu Properties PlcINTUP.L on Thursday said it would form a joint venture with Cale Street forthe Intu derby shopping centre.
* UNILEVER: Consumer goods giant Unilever ULVR.L reported stronger thanexpected quarterly underlying sales growth on Thursday, helped by increasedprices and volume.
* GLENCORE: Glencore Coal's chief development officer jeff Gerard wasappointed to the top job at Glencore'sGLEN.L unit Katanga MiningKAT.TO ,less than two months after Glencore said it would limit annual coal productioncapacity to current levels.
* DOMINO'S: Investors of Domino's Pizza Group PlcDOM.L have urged thefirm's chief to step down, according to an FT report.
* SHELL: Saudi Aramco plans to buy Royal Dutch Shell'sRDSa.L 50 percentstake in Saudi refining complex SASREF, a joint venture between the firms, twosources said on Wednesday.
* OIL: Oil prices dropped on Thursday as the impact of plentiful U.S.production offset a surprise decline in U.S. inventories, leaving internationalbenchmark Brent retreating from a five-month high touched in the previoussession.
* GOLD: Gold fell to its lowest since December-end on Thursday asindications that the global economy might not be as troubled as previouslyfeared prompted investors to take risks ahead of a slew of economic data.
* EX-DIVS: BAE SystemsBAES.L and Reckitt Benckiser RB.L will tradewithout entitlement to their latest dividend pay-out on Thursday, trimming 4.2points off the FTSE 100 according to Reuters calculations.
* The UK blue chip index was off its six-month high on Wednesday as a fallin miners over Vale's plans to reopen a major Brazilian mine offset gains inbanks after upbeat data from China.
* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: LIVE/
TODAY'S UK PAPERS
> Financial TimesPRESS/FT
> Other business headlines PRESS/GB (Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru) ((Pushkala.A@thomsonreuters.com; within UK: +44 20 7542 1810, outside UK: +9180 6749 6633 ; Reuters Messaging: Pushkala.A.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net;Twitter: @pushkala_a))
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