(Adds company news items, futures)
June 18 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 futures FFIc1 were down 0.2 percent ahead of the cash market open.
* DS SMITH: British packaging group DS Smith Plc SMDS.L posted a 21 percent rise in full-year adjusted pretax profit on Monday, driven by acquisitions and strong demand from its European and e-commerce customers. VIRGIN MONEY-CYBG: Mid-sized British bank CYBG CYBGC.L said on Monday it had clinched a deal to take over rival Virgin Money VM.L after over a month of talks, in a deal valuing the lender at around 1.7 billion pounds ($2.26 billion). TESCO: The chairman of Tesco TSCO.L , Britain's biggest retailer, on Friday pledged to end the all-white make-up of its board of directors. VEDANTA: A minor leak has been detected in the sulphuric acid storage plant in Vedanta's VED.L south Indian copper smelter, a government official said on Sunday, about a month after the state ordered its shutdown after protests in which 13 people died. BRITAIN-M&A: Deal-making involving UK companies has picked up in the two years since the country's decision to leave the European Union, defying worries that Brexit would stifle mergers and acquisition activity, data from Thomson Reuters Deals Intelligence shows. GOLD: Gold prices inched higher on Monday after falling to a 5-1/2-month low in the previous session, as a trade dispute between the world's two largest economies triggered safe-haven buying, but a strong dollar put a cap on the upside. OIL: U.S. oil prices slumped on Monday after China threatened duties on American crude imports in an escalating trade dispute with Washington. The UK blue chip FTSE 100 .FTSE index ended the day down 1.7 percent at 7,633.91 points on Friday, as an escalating U.S.-China trade spat sent UK stocks tumbling, sinking oil and mining shares in a broad reversal across European markets. For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets
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