Britain's FTSE snaps losing streak, helped by Tesco, Vodafone

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* FTSE 100 up 0.2 pct, mid caps up 0.3 pct

* Tesco (Frankfurt: 852647 - news) up 4.6 pct as regulator clears Booker deal

* Vodafone rallies after raising FY outlook

* Record (LSE: REC.L - news) inflow boosts Intermediate Capital (Frankfurt: I2X2.F - news)

* But weaker commodity stocks weigh

By Danilo Masoni

MILAN, Nov 14 (Reuters) - The UK's top stock index rose on Tuesday as Tesco rallied after it won approval for a takeover and Vodafone reported strong results.

The FTSE 100 rose 0.16 percent at 7,426.6 points by 0848 GMT, following three straight days of declines. The mid-cap index gained 0.31 percent.

Tesco rose 4.6 percent after the UK competition regulator gave provisional approval for its proposed 3.7 billion-pound takeover of wholesaler Booker, moving Britain's biggest retailer closer to securing a new avenue of growth. Booker rose 4.8 percent.

"This is a positive catalyst for the Tesco share price as it reduces the uncertainty over this deal," Bernstein analyst Bruno Monteyne said. "However, we expect some uncertainty to remain as the focus will now shift to: will investors approve the deal?"

Sainsbury (Amsterdam: SJ6.AS - news) 's rose 1.2 percent after data showed that Britain's second-biggest grocer after Tesco posted the strongest rise in UK grocery sales in the last 12 weeks.

Vodafone gained 3.9 percent after raising its forecast for full-year earnings growth to around 10 percent from 4 to 8 percent, based on a strong first half.

The broader market was supported by gains among financial stocks, whose weakness helped drag the FTSE to a six-week low on Monday.

On the macroeconomic front, investors will focus on October consumer inflation data, due at 0930 GMT. Inflation is expected to rise above 3 percent for the first time since April 2012. Anything much higher would increase pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest rates, analysts said.

Any such pressure could strengthen the pound and put pressure on export-oriented FTSE companies, such as Shire (Hamburg: 3979575.HM - news) , up 1.8 percent, or BP, which instead was down 0.4 percent as commodity stocks slipped on falling crude prices.

ITV (Frankfurt: A0BLQP - news) fell 1.9 percent after posting a 1 percent decline in third-quarter sales.

Mid-cap asset manager Intermediate Capital soared 10 percent after reporting record inflows. (Reporting by Danilo Masoni, editing by Larry King)