Britain's FTSE rises as Randgold shines

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* FTSE 100 up 0.2 pct

* Randgold rallies after Q4 results, leads miners

* Housebuilders drop

By Kit Rees

LONDON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index steadiedon Monday, helped by gains among mining stocks after RandgoldResources posted solid fourth-quarter results.

The FTSE 100 index was up 0.2 percent at 7,202.44points by 0947 GMT, slightly outperforming the broader Europeanmarket.

Randgold Resources jumped 3.6 percent to trade nearthree-month highs after the gold miner reported itsfourth-quarter profit rose 76 percent and said it would increaseits annual dividend by 52 percent .

Fellow precious metals miner Fresnillo gained 1.4percent, supported by a rising gold price, which was up for athird straight session.

"This is an impressive set of figures (for Randgold) and thekey here will be the price of gold going forward," FionaCincotta, market analyst at City Index, said in a note.

"Given the heightened uncertainty in the geopolitical arena,with Trump at the helm, gold could be looking to achieve $1300should the safe-haven trade start to replace the Trump trade,which would serve to boost the miner further."

Among other risers, Barclays led UK banking stockshigher after the lender said that it would overhaulits back office operations under a restructuring to help itcomply with new post-crisis rules.

Analysts also cited U.S. President Donald Trump's move toorder reviews of major banking rules on Friday as supportingbanking stocks.

"Barclays would be one of the biggest beneficiaries ...because they have a big U.S. business and they've recentlyrestructured so that their focus is just really the U.S. and theUK," said Jasper Lawler, senior market analyst at London CapitalGroup.

However, shares in British housebuilders Taylor Wimpey, Barratt Developments and Persimmon fell1.3 to 1.6 percent before the publication of the Britishgovernment's new housing strategy on Tuesday. (Reporting by Kit Rees, editing by Larry King)