UPDATE 2-FTSE 100 gains as sterling slips on renewed hard Brexit concerns

* FTSE 100 up 0.5%, FTSE 250 up 0.9%
* Exporter stocks gain after sterling slips
* Mid-cap FirstGroup hits near 2-yr high
* Daily Mail publisher surges on upbeat results
* De La Rue sinks to over 15-yr low after profit warning

(Adds news item, analyst comment, updates to closing prices)
By Shashwat Awasthi
May 30 (Reuters) - London's top share index rose on Thursday
as the pound slipped on concerns that outgoing Prime Minister
Theresa May's successor might push for a hard Brexit, helping
more internationally focused stocks gain.
The FTSE 100 .FTSE , whose components earn a large chunk of
their revenue from outside the UK, rose 0.5%. The mid-cap FTSE
250 .FTMC advanced 0.9%, bouncing back after steep losses in
the previous session.
Internationally exposed stocks such as Diageo DGE.L ,
Unilever ULVR.L and British American Tobacco BATS.L were
among the biggest boosts to the main index as mounting political
worries sent sterling below $1.26 for the first time since a
January 3 flash crash.
Britain's finance minister Philip Hammond warned his fellow
party members vying for May's job that a no-deal Brexit would
endanger the economy, as frontrunner Boris Johnson, considered a
proponent of a hard Brexit, earned praise from U.S. President
Donald Trump. "What really compounds the pound's situation is that at this
point it is hard to see June being any better, the month set to
be consumed by a Brexit-focused Tory leadership battle,"
Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said.
Investors also seemed to shed some aversion to risky assets
through the day, even as the Sino-U.S. trade spat loomed large.
China fired another shot at the United States on Thursday as
Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Hanhui said provoking trade disputes
was "naked economic terrorism". Among blue-chip fallers was Johnson Matthey JMAT.L which
shed 4.3% after the chemicals group's annual profit missed
consensus estimates. Energy utility National Grid NG.L and retailer Marks &
Spencer MKS.L slid more than 4.5% each as both stocks traded
ex-dividend.
FirstGroup FGP.L , under pressure from a shareholder to
make strategic changes, gained 3.6% after jumping to a near
two-year high, as it put its U.S. coach service Greyhound up for
sale and also said it was looking to separate its UK First Bus
operations. "Greyhound is in long term structural decline and absorbs
considerable management time without offering upside potential,
and therefore disposing of it is optimal," Investec analysts
wrote.
AVEVA AVV.L climbed 6.7% higher as brokerages cast a
bullish view on the stock after the industrial software company
posted results on Thursday. Among smaller stocks, De La Rue Plc DLAR.L lost a third of
its value and plummeted to a more than 15-year low, after the
banknote and passports maker issued a profit warning for fiscal
2020 and said its chief executive would step down. But Daily Mail DMGOa.L jumped almost 10% on the
pan-regional STOXX 600 .STOXX after it reported a
better-than-expected rise in first-half profit and reaffirmed
its annual forecasts.