UK's FTSE touches record high but lags global equity rally

* FTSE 100 up 0.3 pct

* Oil majors, miners rise

* Debenhams (Frankfurt: D2T.F - news) drop weighs on retailers

* British services rebound in December

* House prices weigh on real estate (Adds closing prices)

By Kit Rees and Julien Ponthus

LONDON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - A rise in oil majors helped pushed the UK's top share index to an all-time high on Thursday but below the level enjoyed by its European peers, as retailers hurt after a Debenhams profit warning and house prices weighed on the real estate sector.

Britain's FTSE 100 index closed up 0.3 percent at 7,696.50 after hitting a record of 7702.11 points after surveys showed Britain's dominant services sector rebounded strongly last month.

The data pushed sterling slightly higher, keeping pressure on earners of dollars.

A rally in cyclical sectors such as financials and energy added about 22 points to the index, with BP and Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) rising 1.1 percent and one percent respectively.

The UK's oil and gas index was up one percent at its highest level since May 2008.

The British oil majors mirrored a move higher in oil prices, which were spurred to their highest since mid-2015 on the back of tensions in producer Iran.

A supportive research note from Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) also helped the energy sector, in which analysts said they expected European integrated oil and refining companies to be cash flow positive after dividends in the fourth quarter, thanks to a higher oil price.

Likewise positive metals prices also drove shares in British miners. Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in Glencore (Frankfurt: 8GC.F - news) , Anglo American (LSE: AAL.L - news) and BHP Billiton (NYSE: BBL - news) rose between 0.3 percent to 1.4 percent.

The mood was less positive among retail stocks, however, as shares in small cap Debenhams closed down 17.7 percent after a profit warning following a difficult Christmas trading period.

This contrasted with Next (Frankfurt: 779551 - news) 's upbeat update on Christmas sales on Wednesday.

Shares in Debenhams posted their biggest one-day loss since March 2008, while blue chip Marks & Spencer (Frankfurt: 534418 - news) was also down 3.6 percent at the bottom of the FTSE.

"Ongoing structural challenges, a soft consumer environment, rising costs and increasing capex demands make for a difficult outlook (for Debenhams)," analysts at Liberum said in a note.

The real estate sector also suffered after data showed British house prices grew last year at their slowest since 2012 and fell in London for the first time in a full year since 2009.

British Land Company fell 3 percent and Hammerson 2.5 percent.

(Reporting by Kit Rees; Editing by Janet Lawrence, William Maclean)