Strong earnings help FTSE to rise towards record high

* Blue-chip FTSE 100 index up 0.6 pct

* Sky (Other OTC: BSYBF - news) , ARM Holdings (LSE: ARM.L - news) gain after higher profits

* Associated British Foods (LSE: ABF.L - news) falls after results

By Atul Prakash

LONDON, April 21 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index advanced on Tuesday to just below a recent record high, with shares in ARM Holdings and SKY rising sharply after the companies announced strong profits.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 was up 0.6 percent at 7,092.54 points by 0753 GMT after gaining 0.8 percent in the previous session. The index hit a record high of 7,119.35 points last week.

"Investors are just looking for any positive factor to push the market forward. People are a bit concerned ahead of the UK elections and debt concerns in Greece, but the quality of earnings is driving the market," David Battersby, investment manager at Redmayne-Bentley, said.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in SKY rose 4.6 percent, the top gainer in the FTSE 100 index, as solid demand for pay-TV in Britain and an improving picture in Germany and Italy helped it post a 20 percent jump in nine-month profit.

"Another set of encouraging numbers underlines SKY's determination to position itself as a major European force within the media sector," Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers, said.

ARM Holdings rose 4.5 percent after the British chip designer whose technology powers Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) 's iPhones said it made an encouraging start to the year, with pretax profit up 24 percent.

The FTSE 100 index has gained 8 percent this year, but lags other major European indexes including Germany's DAX and France's CAC - both up more than 20 percent - due to uncertainty about the election results.

David Cameron's centre-right Conservatives and the centre-left Labour party are neck and neck in opinion polls ahead of the election, indicating that no single party will win a clear majority.

"More generally, a Conservative-led government would likely be expected to react in a more business- and market-friendly manner in the event of unforeseen challenges ... a leftward shift in government is likely to raise the risk premium on domestically exposed stocks," Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) said in a report.

On the downside, Associated British Foods fell 3.1 percent, the top decliner in the FTSE 100 index, after reporting a 2 percent fall in first-half profit; while Rio Tinto (Xetra: 855018 - news) slid 2.2 percent after missing first-quarter analyst forecasts for iron ore shipments.

(Editing by Susan Fenton)