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Britain's FTSE hits six week high on encouraging earnings

Reuters - UK Focus

* FTSE 100 up 0.5 pct, rises for fifth straight day

* Pearson (Xetra: 858266 - news) , Dixons Carphone (LSE: DC.L - news) and SABMiller (LSE: SAB.L - news) rise on updates

* SportDirect falls after founder cuts stake

By Alistair Smout

LONDON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 lifted in early deals on Wednesday to a six week-high, rising for a fifth straight day on the back of encouraging corporate reports.

Top gainer in early deals was Pearson, up 2.6 percent after the education and media group said it expected its 2015 earnings to rise.

Solid (KOSDAQ: 050890.KQ - news) growth in Pearson's North American higher education unit helped it bring an end to a turbulent two-year period of restructuring and profit downgrades.

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"The desire for education materials has driven them on, continuing a pretty impressive performance they've had over the last 12 months," Alastair McCaig, market analyst at IG (LSE: IGG.L - news) , said.

"Ever since disappointing figures this time last year, they've sought to make amends," he added.

Dixons Carphone rose 2.3 percent after the electrical goods and mobile phone retailer raised its guidance for 2014-15 profit after a strong Christmas. Brewer SABMiller also rose 1.8 percent after results.

Although SABMiller saw its performance hurt by weather in China, traders said that weather effects would be short-lived, citing rising overall sales and an agreement with Coca-Cola in Africa as supporting the stock.

The FTSE 350 Beverage sector rose 1.4 percent, while other consumer staples were also firmer. The consumer staple sector contributed more than 13 points to the FTSE 100's advance.

The FTSE 100 was up 33.93 points, or 0.5 percent, at 6,655.03 by 0846 GMT, touching its highest level since December 9.

The rally has left the index just 3.8 percent off a 14-1/2 year high set in September 2014, as expectations build that the European Central Bank will launch a bond-buying programme on Thursday.

Top faller was Sports Direct, down 4.5 percent, after found Mike Ashley cut his stake in the sports retailer to 55 percent.

Engineer Weir Group fell 3.5 percent after being cut to "underweight" from "neutral" by JP Morgan. Analysts at the bank said they expected the low price of oil to reduce demand for Weir's rigs as capital expenditure falls.

In an example of this trend, commodity firm BHP Billiton (NYSE: BBL - news) said on Wednesday it would cut its spending on shale drilling over the next six months as it looks to meet its promise not to reduce dividends in the face of a collapse in iron ore, copper and oil prices. BHP Billiton traded roughly flat. (Editing by Andrew Heavens)