(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window) Aug 12 (Reuters) - European stocks held steady on Thursday, trading just below record highs as strong earnings from a clutch of insurers and M&A activity in UK helped offset a decline in miners. The pan-European STOXX 600 index was flat in morning trade after eight consecutive days of record gains. British insurer Aviva rose 1.8% after it said it would return at least 4 billion pounds ($5.5 billion) to shareholders, while Zurich Insurance Group AG added 2.2% on reporting a 60% jump in first-half business operating profit. Dutch insurer Aegon NV jumped 6.5% on posting a much better than expected second-quarter earnings. Dragging down miners, UK-listed shares of global miner Rio Tinto tumbled 6.1% on trading ex-dividend. Cineworld Group rose 7.2% after it said it was considering a listing of itself or a partial listing of its movie chain Regal on Wall Street. Stock Spirits Group jumped 42.5% funds as funds affiliated with private-equity firm CVC agreed to take over the London-listed vodka maker in a deal valuing it at 767 million pounds ($1.1 billion). (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)