By Sudip Kar-Gupta
LONDON (Reuters) - The FTSE 100 rose on Thursday, helped by the U.S. Federal Reserve's pledge for a "patient approach" to any interest rate increase.
Technology group ARM was among the best-performing stocks on the blue-chip FTSE 100 index after an upbeat broker note.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said U.S. interest rates were unlikely to rise for "at least a couple of meetings," meaning April at the earliest, helping to ease concerns that a tightening in U.S. monetary policy and a rising dollar could curb global economic growth and pummel the price of commodities.
Yellen's comments lifted global equity markets, with the FTSE 100 up 1 percent at 6,398.80 points going into the middle of the trading session, extending gains from Wednesday.
The FTSE also flickered higher after data showed that British retail sales had surged at their fastest annual rate in more than a decade in November.
"We're now well set up for the self-fulfilling prophecy of the end-of-year rally," said Central Markets trading analyst Joe Neighbour.
ARM rose 3.7 percent, which traders attributed to a note from brokerage Exane, which kept an "outperform" rating on the chipmaker, citing positive comments from ARM on its prospects in China.
Petrofac and other oil majors such as BP also rose as the oil price rose by around 2 percent, after hitting five-year lows earlier this week.
The FTSE 100 hit a peak this year of 6,904.86 points in early September, its highest level since early 2000, but then lost ground in October and remains down by around 5 percent since the start of 2014.
(Additional reporting By Francesco Canepa; Editing by Larry King and Susan Fenton)