* FTSEurofirst 300 gains 0.2 percent
* Drugs, oils gain, offsetting weak miners
* ECB, BoE stand pat on interest rates
* For up-to-the-minute market news, click on []
By Dominic Lau;
LONDON, June 4 (Reuters) - European equities drifted higher
in afternoon trade on Thursday, as gains in drugmakers and oil
producers outpaced weaker mining stocks.
By 1234 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 <> of top European
companies was up 0.2 percent at 869.45 points, after losing 2
percent on Wednesday.
The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless
benefits fell for a third straight week last week, data showed,
indicating some loss of force in the pace of the labour market's
deterioration.
The European Central Bank and the Bank of England kept
interest rates unchanged. But the markets are turning their
attention to the details of ECB's covered bond purchase plan and
any clues on whether rates may yet be cut further.
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"The ECB decision was no surprise," said Achim Matzke, a
strategist at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.
"We have a very fine movements during the last month. We
expect a slow down (in the rally). The ECB decision has not
changed the picture of this slowdown," he said, but added that
he was positive on the market for the rest of the year.
Across Europe, the FTSE 100 <> index was up 0.1
percent, recovering early weakness on speculation that Prime
Minister Gordon Brown was resigning. His office said the talk
was "absolute nonsense".
Germany's DAX <> and France's CAC 40 <> were both
up 0.7 to 0.8 percent.
However, oil producers gained, tracking firmer crude prices.
<CLc1> Goldman Sachs raised its end of 2009 oil price forecast
to $85 a barrel from $65 and introduced a new end-2010 forecast
of $95.
BP <BP.L>, Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L>, Total <TOTF.PA> and
Repsol <REP.MC> advanced between 0.8 and 1.5 percent.
Pharmaceutical shares gained ground. AstraZeneca <AZN.L>,
GlaxoSmithKline <GSK.L>, Roche <ROG.VX>, Novartis <NOVN.VX> and
Sanofi-Aventis <SASY.PA> put on between 0.6 and 3.8 percent.
Miners were in negative territory, with Vedanta Resources
<VED.L>, BHP Billiton <BLT.L>, Lonmin <LMI.L>, Anglo American
<AAL.L> and Xstrata <XTA.L> down 2.4 to 7.3 percent.
Rio Tinto <RIO.L> fell 4.9 percent. Chinese state-owned
metals firm Chinalco may revise its planned $19.5 billion
investment in miner Rio Tinto <RIO.AX><RIO.L> before a June 14
deadline to avoid further delays in Australian government
approval, two sources close to the deal said.
Financials were mixed, with HSBC <HSBA.L> and UBS <UBSN.VX>
down. But Barclays <BARC.L>, Royal Bank of Scotland <RBS.L> and
Societe Generale <SOGN.PA> were up.
(Editing by Karen Foster)
