Britain's FTSE steady ahead of ECB, Aviva boosted

(Corrects to 'points' from 'percent' in paragraph 12)

* FTSE 100 up 0.1 pct

* Aviva (Other OTC: AIVAF - news) rises after results

* Ashtead continues to suffer from broker bearishness

* Savills (Other OTC: SVLPF - news) , Amec Foster Wheeler (Other OTC: AMCBF - news) beat eearnings expectations

By Alistair Smout

LONDON, March 10 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index was roughly steady on Thursday ahead of an eagerly anticipated European Central Bank meeting, with Aviva boosted by well-received results.

Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.1 percent to 6,150.26 by 0832 GMT, slightly underperforming euro zone indexes.

The ECB is set to unveil its second stimulus cocktail in three months later in the session, spurred by fears that low energy costs are feeding into wages and prices, potentially perpetuating ultra-low inflation.

"The FTSE may have less ... at stake in today's ECB meeting, but it nevertheless will rise and fall on the sentiment wafting over from the euro zone, especially with its empty economic calendar this Thursday," Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex, said in a note.

Insurer Aviva was the top FTSE 100 riser, up 4.4 percent after it posted an above-forecast 20 percent rise in 2015 operating profit.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) also said that integration plans with Friends Life (Other OTC: RSLLF - news) , which it bought last year, were proceeding ahead of schedule.

"The Friends Life acquisition continues to look like an astute move and the company has pulled off a crowd-pleasing 15 percent dividend hike to boot," said Tony Cross, market analyst at Trustnet Direct.

Among fallers, Ashtead fell again to take losses this week to nearly 10 percent as brokers continued to knock the construction equipment rental firm.

After being hit by broker downgrades in the previous session, on Thursday it was Deutsche Bank (LSE: 0H7D.L - news) who was the latest to provide bearish comments on the stock, initiating coverage with a "sell" rating.

"We expect competition in U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . equipment rental to intensify, as small to mid-sized players gain increased access to cheap bank lending," Deutsche Bank analysts said in a note.

"As such, we anticipate Ashtead's returns on capital to reduce over the coming years due to increased competition in the industry."

Other stocks, such as CRH (EUREX: 558474.EX - news) , Direct Line and Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) , came under pressure after trading without entitlement to their latest dividend payouts. "Ex-divs" trimmed 5.8 points off of the FTSE 100 in all.

Among mid-caps, estate agent Savills and oil services stock Amec Foster Wheeler both rose around 6 percent after beating earnings expectations.

(Editing by Catherine Evans)