FTSE dips on Wolseley, Smith Group; Unilever up

* FTSE 100 dips 0.1 percent

* Unilever rises on U.S. haircare firm purchase

* Wolseley falls after results

* Smiths Group down after Merrill downgrades

By Dominic Lau

LONDON, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index dipped by midday on Monday, with Wolseley down after posting a flat full-year profit while Unilever rose on a U.S. acquisition. Unilever climbed 2.3 percent after the consumer goods group agreed to buy United States-based hair care group Alberto Culver Co for $3.7 billion in cash to boost its personal care business. [ID:nLDE68Q07C]

Wolseley lost 1.6 percent after the world's largest plumbing, heating products and building materials supplier posted flat year profit. It said it plans to move its tax status to Switzerland in search of tax savings. [ID:nLDE68Q04B]

British house prices rose at their slowest annual rate in seven months in September, as prices fell monthly in all regions for the first time in almost 1-1/2 years, according to a survey by property data firm Hometrack.

Banks <.FTNMX8350> were also weaker, down 0.7 percent.

By 1050 GMT, the FTSE 100 <.FTSE> was down 4.63 points, or 0.1 percent at 5,593.80 after gaining 1.6 percent last week. UK shares reversed earlier losses and staged a late rally on Friday, sparked by better-than-expected U.S. macroeconomic data that helped the index to snap a three-day losing run.

The index's 50-day moving average crossed above the 200-day moving average, in what technical analysts called a "golden cross". It indicates a positive signal for the index.

"In the short term, it looks like we have got a bullish bias. But there is still an argument that the whole pace of this recovery over the last few weeks looks counter-trend," said Geoff Wilkinson, head of investment research at Mint Securities.

The FTSE volatility index <.VFTSE> rose 1.3 percent, indicating higher risk aversion.

The UK benchmark is up 7 percent this month and is on track for its biggest monthly rise since July 2009.

OVERBOUGHT TERRITORY

"We are coming into some pretty overbought levels. You can't expect the market to continue to rise quite feverishly. We have a great September," said Jawaid Afsar, trader at Securequity.

"Notwithstanding the fact that we could face a short-term correction given the overbought nature of the market, there is still upside for at least 100 and 150 points left. In terms of valuations, the UK index looked cheaper than the U.S. S&P 500 <.SPX> though in line with Germany's DAX <.GDAXI>. The FTSE 100 carried a 12-month forward price-to-earnings of 10.2 versus S&P 500's 12.24 and DAX's 10.28, Thomson Reuters Datastream showed.

Smiths Group topped FTSE 100 fallers' list, down 2 percent after BofA Merrill Lynch downgrade the technology firm to "neutral" from "buy".

AstraZeneca lost 0.8 percent after the company's experimental prostate cancer pill zibotentan failed to improve survival in a late-stage clincial trial, dealing a fresh blow to the its oncology pipeline. [ID:nLDE68Q06H]

Miner Kazakhmys advanced 2 percent, boosted by a price target hike by Goldman Sachs. (Editing by Mike Nesbit)