* FTSE 100 up 0.3 percent, BoE keeps rates at 0.5 percent, holds QE
* Banks, miners gain, U.S. fiscal stimulus boosts confidence
* Standard Chartered retreats after trading update
By David Brett
LONDON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Banks led Britain's top share index higher on Thursday, maintaining early gains as the Bank of England's (BoE) Monetary Policy Committee kept interest rates unchanged and made no new quantitative easing purchases.
By 1216 GMT, the FTSE 100 was 18.32 points or 0.3 percent, higher at 5,812.85 after falling 0.2 percent on Wednesday.
The BoE's decision makers shrugged off debt concerns in the euro zone, rising inflation in the UK and Britain's anaemic growth outlook, to meet analyst expectations and keep interest rates at 0.5 percent and total asset purchases at 200 billion pounds.
"(There's been) absolutely no reaction whatsoever, not surprisingly -- we didn't expect anything to come out of it," James Hughes, market analyst at CMC Markets, said.
"When we get to the meeting minutes, that's going to be the key point, to see how the votes were ... if we're going to get movement it will be then."
Banks were higher, led by Royal Bank of Scotland up 3.3 percent. But Standard Chartered shed 2.6 percent after issuing a trading update.
Gains were supported by mining and energy stocks as investors received a shot in the arm as proposed fiscal stimulus measures in the United States helped boost the outlook for the global economy.
"It's a case of two steps forward and one step back, but there's a bit more confidence that there's some growth about and that's not a bad situation for equities," Neil Tong, head of UK equities at Alliance Trust said.
However he added that caution was likely to remain as government debt problems around Europe have yet to be resolved.
EU leaders continued to disagree over how to tackle Europe's sovereign debt issues. (Editing by Hans Peters)