* Banks bounce back after Monday's decline
* Commodity stocks rise, tracking metals, oil prices
* U.S. Fed rate decision due at 1815 GMT
By Tricia Wright
LONDON, March 16 (Reuters) - Firmer banks and commodity
stocks helped drive Britain's top shares 0.3 percent higher by
midday on Tuesday, recovering after falls the previous session,
as investors eyed a U.S. Federal Reserve rate setting meeting.
At 1157 GMT, the FTSE 100 <> was up 16.37 points at
5,610.22, having closed 0.6 percent lower on Monday.
"Today, there isn't really much in all honesty to go on,
because there's a distinct lack of economic data, and volumes
are relatively thin," said Angus Campbell, head of sales at
Capital Spreads.
"Investors are actually waiting to see what is going to
happen at the FOMC meeting this evening," he said.
Banks rose, rebounding after falls on Monday, though with
some investor jitters ahead of the new U.S. banking regulation
bill set to be unveiled on Tuesday.
Barclays <BARC.L> was among the top blue chip gainers,
adding 1.9 percent as Morgan Stanley raised its target price to
440 pence from 370 and forecast that the UK bank's investment
banking arm can deliver a 7 billion pound ($10.49 billion)
profit in 2011. []
Royal Bank of Scotland <RBS.L>, meanwhile, put on 1.3
percent. The bank is preparing a debt buyback scheme as it seeks
to rearrange its balance sheet to boost its core capital, the
Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.
[]
HSBC <HSBA.L>, Lloyds Banking Group <LLOY.L> and Standard
Chartered <STAN.L> added 0.2 to 1.2 percent.
Energy stocks were also in favour, led higher by Royal Dutch
Shell <RDSa.L>.
The oil major's shares added 1.1 percent, after it said it
was planning a return to robust growth in oil and gas production
after years of decline, as it unveiled strong reserves additions
that would underpin longer term growth. []
BP <BP.L> added 0.5 percent. The company is to take a
majority stake in a Canadian oil sands property. []
BG Group <BG.L> and Cairn Energy <CNE.L> added 0.4 and 0.9
percent as crude prices <CLc1> rose back above $80 a barrel,
while Tullow Oil <TLW.L> also rose 0.9 percent, helped by a
target price hike from Citigroup.
MINERS REBOUND
Miners, the biggest drag on the index in the previous
session, received support from firmer metal prices.
Eurasian Natural Resources <ENRC.L> topped the FTSE 100
leader board, up 2.7 percent, while Antofagasta <ANTO.L> and
Fresnillo <FRES.L> also notched up good gains of 1.6 and 1.5
percent, respectively.
Rio Tinto <RIO.L> put on 0.6 percent. The miner is in talks
with China's top aluminium group Chinalco to develop the
Simandou iron ore project in Guinea at an expected cost of $12
billion, an Australian newspaper said. []
Among individual movers, G4S <GFS.L> was the top blue chip
faller, off 2.4 percent with analysts pointing to shrinking
organic growth and saying investors are unconvinced by the
company outlook as it posted a 20 percent rise in full-year
profits.
On the second line, Close Brothers <CBRO.L> jumped 5.6
percent after the merchant bank posted a better than expected 50
percent rise in first-half profit, as a strong performance from
its Winterflood brokerage helped offset weakness in its asset
management arm. []
Investors were eyeing the Fed's policy meeting, due to
conclude at 1815 GMT. No changes to headline U.S. monetary
policy are expected until the third quarter at the earliest.
[]
The meeting follows last month's surprise quarter-point hike
in the U.S. discount rate -- seen as the start of the Fed's
withdrawal of emergency support to the financial system.
(Editing by Hans Peters)
