Aviva ensures FTSE 100's move back toward record highs

By Sudip Kar-Gupta LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's top share index approached record highs again on Thursday, lifted by a rally in insurance stocks such as Aviva after positive results in the sector. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index closed up 0.6 percent at 6,961.14 points, near the 6,974.26 record it set this month. Traders said that European equities were further supported by confirmation that the European Central Bank (ECB) will start a bond-buying programme - aimed at boosting the region's economy - this month, while the Bank of England also kept interest rates at record lows. "I think that a new record of 7,000 points for the FTSE is just around the corner," Berkeley Futures' associate director, Richard Griffiths, said. Aviva rose 7.1 percent, to be among the top gainers in the FTSE 100, after reporting higher profits. "The results are both broadly pleasing and in stark contrast to the travails of recent years, most notably the financial crisis and subsequent dividend cut in 2013," Hargreaves Lansdown stockbrokers head of equities, Richard Hunter, said of Aviva. Sector peer Friends Life also advanced 7.1 percent after reporting a 38-percent rise in pre-tax operating profit. Shares in broadcaster ITV rose 2.8 percent after HSBC, Goldman Sachs, Berenberg, JPMorgan, Nomura and Exane all raised their price targets for the stock, a day after it announced the return of cash to shareholders. Goldman also added ITV to its "conviction list". However, miners faced some selling pressure after China, the world's biggest metals consumer, lowered its economic growth target for 2015 to about 7 percent, below 2014's 7.5 percent goal. The FTSE 350 Mining Index underperformed the broader market rally to close flat. British bank HSBC also fell 2.7 percent as it went "ex-dividend", meaning the stock was trading without the attraction of its latest payout. (Additional reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Louise Ireland)