* FTSE 100 up 0.8 pct; set for 7th straight day of gains
* BP top riser; spill fund gives some certainty
* Upbeat broker sentiment helps Johnson Matthey, Wolseley
By Tricia Wright
LONDON, June 17 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index was
higher at midday on Thursday, boosted by BP <BP.L> as investors
welcomed concrete plans to cope with Gulf of Mexico oil spill
claims, and by banks after encouraging UK retail sales data.
By 1106 GMT, the FTSE 100 <> was up 43.86 points, or
0.8 percent, at 5,281.78, after adding 0.4 percent on Tuesday.
London's blue-chip index is on track for a seventh straight
day of gains, its longest winning streak since July 2009.
BP grabbed the top spot on the blue-chip leader board,
jumping 7.9 percent and adding almost 20 points to the index,
after the oil major agreed to set up a $20 billion fund for
spill-related damage claims and suspend its dividend.
"Anyone would have thought after the headlines from BP that
their share price would plummet, but of course the whole point
about their rise today is that it gets rid of any doubt that
there may have been around the stock," said Angus Campbell, head
of sales at Capital Spreads.
"(There is) certainty of at least ultimately what they're
liable to, (and) I think there's probably a degree of confidence
from the American side of things back in the company now that
they've suspended their dividend."
British retail sales rose six times faster than expected on
the month in May, as consumers bought new televisions to watch
the World Cup soccer tournament, the Office for National
Statistics said. []
These encouraging economic signs helped banks, with Royal
Bank of Scotland <RBS.L>, Lloyds Banking Group <LLOY.L> and
Barclays <BARC.L> taking the second, third and fourth places on
the FTSE 100 risers' list, up 3.4 to 4.6 percent.
Finance minister George Osborne announced the biggest
shake-up of the regulatory landscape in 13 years on Wednesday,
saying he was to give the Bank of England ultimate control over
financial supervision. []
The mood was also brightened by a successful Spanish bond
auction, which eased fears over the euro zone debt crisis.
[]
BROKER BOOST
A number of stocks were helped higher by upbeat broker
sentiment.
Johnson Matthey <JMAT.L> put on 2.5 percent after Deutsche
Bank lifted its rating for the supplier of catalytic converters
to "buy" from "hold", pointing to a step-up in earnings growth
and an attractive valuation.
Reckitt Benckiser <RB.L> added 1.9 percent after RBS
upgraded its rating for the consumer products firm to "buy" from
"hold", citing the continued absence of generic competition for
heroin substitute drug Suboxone and more favourable foreign
exchange rates.
And a target price hike from Morgan Stanley helped Wolseley
<WOS.L> up 2.2 percent, with the broker saying the builders'
merchant group's third-quarter update flagged better revenue
trends.
Defensive stocks were out of favour, with drugmakers
GlaxoSmithKline <GSK.L> and Shire <SHP.L> down 0.6 and 0.4
percent, respectively, and cigarette firms British American
Tobacco <BATS.L> and Imperial Tobacco <IMT.L> both shedding 0.4
percent.
Later in the session, investors will watch a raft of U.S.
data including CPI and jobless numbers and the Philadelphia
business index.
(Editing by Will Waterman)
