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Britain's FTSE hovers just below 14-month high, WorldPay rises

(ADVISORY- Follow European and UK stock markets in real time on the Reuters Live Markets blog on Eikon, see cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets)

* FTSE 100 hovers at highest level since June 2015

* UK bank index recoups all its post-Brexit losses

* WorldPay up after H1 results

* Legal & General (LSE: LGEN.L - news) shares fall after H1 results

By Sudip Kar-Gupta

LONDON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Britain's top shares index rose on Tuesday close to its highest level in 14 months, lifted by gains in major financial stocks while Worldpay also surged.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was up 0.3 percent at 6,831.19 points in early session trading, hovering just below a high last reached in June 2015. The FTSE 100 is up around 9 percent so far in 2016.

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The FTSE 100 slumped in the immediate aftermath of Britain's vote on June 23 to quit the European Union, and although it since recouped all of those losses, the value of UK shares remains impacted in U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . dollar terms due to a fall in sterling following the Brexit vote.

Britain's leading banking index advanced on Tuesday to recover, in sterling terms, all of its post-referendum losses.

Insurer Standard Life hit its highest level post-Brexit after reporting an increase in assets under management, but shares in rival Legal & General fell on some disappointing profits at L&G's investment management and general insurance businesses.

The relative resilience of heavyweight financial stocks such as insurance firms in the wake of the Brexit vote have been a key driver behind the FTSE 100's recent rally, said Lewis Jones, stockbroker at Cornhill Capital.

"Most of the insurers have outperformed, enabling the FTSE to continue to push higher," said Jones.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in WorldPay, which provides platforms for merchants to accept payments by cards and other methods, climbed 6 percent after its interim earnings beat forecasts.

The Bank of England's move last week to cut UK interest rates to record lows gave a further lift to British stocks and Markus Huber, trader at City of London Markets Limited, said overall sentiment remained positive. (Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)