Adds new items, updates futures

July 9 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE index opened nearly 0.4% higher on Thursday.

* INFORMA: Informa INF.L said Chair John Rishton would step down in 2027, with former Reuters chief Tom Glocer appointed chair-elect.

* CAPITA: Capita CPI.L said failures on its flagship civil service pension scheme contract would hit annual adjusted operating profit by £25 million to £40 million.

* ASTRAZENECA: AstraZeneca AZN.L said that its drug Wainua, made in partnership with Ionis IONS.O, failed to meet the main goal of in a late-stage trial.

* WORKSPACE: Workspace Group WKP.L urged its shareholders to vote against activist investor Saba Capital's proposals at its annual general meeting later this month, while backing its turnaround strategy and board.

* THAMES WATER: Creditors seeking to take control of Thames Water are preparing to provide fresh financial backing to the debt-laden utility, Sky News reported.

* GSK: Alector ALEC.O said GSK GSK.L had terminated their neuroscience collaboration agreement covering two experimental antibody drugs after both the drug candidates suffered clinical setbacks.

* DCC: The UK Takeover Panel further extended, until July 15, the deadline for a consortium of KKR KKR.N and Energy Capital Partners to make a firm offer for DCCDCC.L.

* PAY: British pay settlements held steady in the three months to May, a survey showed, signalling persistent wage pressures closely watched by the Bank of England.

* HOUSEPRICES: The downturn in Britain's housing market abated slightly last month, although sentiment remains fragile and prone to uncertainty, a survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) showed.

* COMMODITIES: Gold hovered near a one-week low, while copper edged up in London and oil rose over 1% on fresh U.S. strikes on Iran and Strait of Hormuz concerns.

* EX-DIVS: Halma HLMA.L will trade without entitlement to its latest dividend pay-out on Thursday.

* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: LIVE/

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