FTSE index steadies, Draghi pledge underpins

* FTSE 100 index up 0.07 pct after recent falls

* Vodafone, Fresnillo (Other OTC: FNLPF - news) among top gainers

* Draghi's pledge of continued support helps

By Atul Prakash

LONDON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index steadied on Wednesday, with supportive comments from European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi and gains from Fresnillo after positive comments from a top bank on its outlook underpinning the market.

Draghi said euro zone monetary policy would remain accommodative for a long period and that the goal was to push up inflation from near zero towards the ECB's target of just below 2 percent.

"Mario Draghi is no doubt moving closer towards a potential shift to implement quantitative easing (QE) with each measure that fails to generate growth of inflation and output," Alpari analyst Joshua Mahony said.

Silver and gold miner Fresnillo topped the blue-chip leader board, up 2.4 percent, after UBS (NYSEArca: FBGX - news) added it to its "most preferred" list. It cited the recent acquisition of Newmont Mining Corp's 44-percent stake in Mexican gold mining joint venture Penmont as a small medium-term positive.

"After recent share price weakness we see attractive long term value in Fresnillo and are attracted to its low cost assets, production growth, high return projects, exploration upside and conservative management," UBS analysts said.

Index heavyweight Vodafone also helped the market to stabilise, rising 2.3 percent to feature among the top gainers, with traders citing some takeover speculation.

Its shares also got support after a European Commission source said late on Tuesday that EU regulators were set to remove limits on the prices that leading telecoms firms can charge smaller operators for accessing their networks.

By 1442 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 0.07 percent at 6,680.75 74 points, having fallen more than 2 percent at the start of the week on profit warnings from Tesco (Xetra: 852647 - news) and Tate & Lyle (LSE: TATE.L - news) , and more weak economic data from the euro zone, Britain's biggest trading partner.

That loss left the benchmark looking "oversold" on its 14-day Relative Strength Index, a technical momentum indicator, and traders said they were looking to buy back into the market.

"The markets have a taken a few hits recently, but I think the returns are still on the upside with regards to equities. People are prepared to take some extra risk and chase equities in search of yields," David Battersby, investment manager at Redmayne-Bentley, said.

Also among the top fallers were stocks trading without their latest dividend, namely Old Mutual (Other OTC: ODMTY - news) and Centrica (LSE: CNA.L - news) . (Additional reporting by Tricia Wright; Editing by Tom Heneghan)