UK Stocks-Factors to watch on April 3

April 3 (Reuters) - Britain’s FTSE 100 index is seen opening 46 points lower at 7,011 on Tuesday, according to financial bookmakers.

* MELROSE/GKN: Melrose Industries has narrowly clinched an 8 billion-pound ($11 billion) takeover of British engineer GKN, winning an acrimonious three-month battle for control of the FTSE 100 company.

* DE LA RUE: British passport-making company De La Rue Plc said on Monday it would appeal a decision by the British government that would allow Franco-Dutch company Gemalto NV to make new blue national passports from 2019.

* ANGLO AMERICAN: Brazilian environmental regulators ordered miner Anglo American Plc to halt operations in the country following a pipeline leak.

* HSBC/US: HSBC Holdings Plc has agreed to pay $100 million to end private U.S. litigation accusing it of conspiring to manipulate the Libor benchmark interest rate, becoming the fourth major bank to settle.

* SKY/MEDIASET: Italy’s largest private broadcaster Mediaset said on Friday it signed a content-sharing deal with Sky’s Italian unit, paving the way for potential broader alliances between the two rival groups.

* ASTRAZENECA/COMPUGEN: Israeli drugmaker Compugen Ltd, said it had agreed an exclusive licensing deal with a unit of AstraZeneca to develop antibody products to treat cancer, which could be worth more than $200 million.

* VEDANTA: Vedanta Ltd, the Indian unit of diversified mining group Vedanta Resources plc, said on Saturday it had won in an auction to acquire bankrupt Electrosteel Steels Ltd.

* KORE POTASH: Kore Potash plans to tap the market in 2019 for $600 million to help fund its $1.86 billion mine project in Congo Republic, its chief executive said on Thursday.

* RYANAIR: Ryanair cancelled at least 20 flights to and from airports in Portugal on Thursday on the first of three days of planned strikes by a cabin crew union, according to flight information on the airline’s web site.

* The UK blue-chip index closed up 0.17 percent on Thursday at 7,056.61 points as Melrose’s successful bid for GKN helped the UK’s top share index finish the month on a positive note.

* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets

TODAY’S UK PAPERS

> Financial Times

> Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru)