Britain's FTSE boosted by Johnson Matthey, Royal Mail updates

* FTSE 100 up 1.3 pct

* Miners rise, sentiment boosted by BHP

* Poundland, Bovis among mid-cap slumpers (Adds detail, quote)

By Alistair Smout

LONDON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 rose sharply on Thursday, tracking a rally in global equities, boosted by strong updates from the likes of Johnson Matthey (LSE: JMAT.L - news) and Royal Mail (LSE: RMG.L - news) and a rally in miners.

Britain's FTSE 100 was up 81.69 points, or 1.3 percent, at 6,360.66 points by 1229 GMT, with European and Asian markets also higher after the U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . Federal Reserve said that the U.S. economy was strong enough to raise rates in December but would proceed with caution thereafter.

Top riser was Johnson Matthey, up 9.3 percent after the world's biggest maker of metal catalysts for car emission control devices announced it would pay 305 million pounds ($466 million) to shareholders as a special dividend after selling two businesses.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) was set for its best session since 2008.

"The numbers are looking good, and with a special dividend we're seeing confidence coming back. The earnings season hasn't been that great, and we've seen some shockers. So people are taking heart from an update like this," said Mark Priest, sales trader at ETX Capital.

Royal Mail rose 5 percent after the postal group reported results ahead of expectations and said it expected costs to be lower for the full year.

Also rising was Irish building materials group CRH , which said it expects strong growth in the United States to drive an increase in full-year earnings of around 25 percent, and more when a string of recent acquisitions are included. Its shares rose 6 percent.

Miners rose 3 percent, away from seven year lows hit in the previous session. Sentiment around the sector was helped by BHP Billiton (NYSE: BBL - news) , up 3.1 percent after it said that maintaining a healthy balance sheet was its first priority.

While most blue chip corporate updates were well-received, the picture was more mixed in the mid-caps. Poundland fell 18 percent after reporting a slump in profits, hit by higher store opening costs.

"The price war which has been waged by the major supermarkets is spilling over into the bargain basement with Poundland seeing a 26 percent drop in first half profits," Russ Mould, Investment Director at AJ Bell, said in a note.

"The group has been hurt by higher store opening costs and highly volatile trading conditions. Its third quarter outcome will now depend even more on the last six weeks' trading in the run-up to Christmas."

Bovis Homes (LSE: BVS.L - news) fell 8 percent after its own trading update, with broker Peel Hunt saying that its margins were disappointing. (Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Toby Chopra)