FTSE rally stalls, robust profit lifts Sports Direct

* FTSE 100 trades flat

* Index range-bound, capped around 6,800 -analysts

* Sports Direct (Frankfurt: A0MK5S - news) gains on strong Christmas profits

* Morrison buoyed by buyout speculation

By Tricia Wright

LONDON, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Britain's top shares steadied on

Wednesday as analysts bet the strong rally that followed a slump

in emerging markets has run out of steam, though Sports Direct

gained on robust profits.

The FTSE 100 closed up 0.28 points - flat in

percentage terms - at 6,796.71 points. It hit 6,810.48, its

highest since late January, earlier in the day. The weakness

followed a rally of around 6 percent since early February.

Analysts reckoned on the index levelling off, around 1

percent shy of a peak hit in late January, before political and

economic concerns in emerging markets took their toll on

equities. It has been trapped in a range between around 6,400 to

6,800 since late October.

"I don't think the traction is there to really push us back

to the highs that we saw earlier this year," CMC Markets senior

market analyst Michael Hewson said. "It's going to be very

difficult to break us out of that range."

Britain's biggest sporting goods retailer Sports Direct

bucked the weaker trend, up 7.1 percent in brisk trade

after unveiling a 14.6 percent rise in profit in its Christmas

quarter and saying it was confident of hitting its full-year

target.

"We maintain our view that Sports Direct is well positioned

to drive long-term growth both in the UK and overseas," analysts

at Liberum wrote in a note, keeping their "buy" rating on the

stock.

Trading volume in Sports Direct stood at nearly three times

its 90-day daily average, against the UK benchmark on about

1-1/4 times.

Supermarket chain Wm Morrison was another good

gainer, ahead 4.9 percent, supported by speculation the business

could be taken private.

Bankers are working on debt financing packages of around 5

billion pounds ($8.4 billion) to back a potential sale of

Morrison to private equity funds, banking sources said.

Morrison, which is 9.5 percent owned by the founding family,

has contacted buyout firms to gauge their interest in taking the

business private after a fall in Christmas sales, Bloomberg

reported last week.

Firms trading without the attraction of their latest

dividend knocked a hefty 14 points off the index - namely

AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN - news) , Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) , Carnival (LSE: CCL.L - news) ,

GlaxoSmithKline (Other OTC: GLAXF - news) and Reckitt Benckiser (Xetra: A0M1W6 - news) .