* Oils dip after recent rally
* Banks mixed; Standard Chartered year meets expectations
* Life insurers gain; Prudential rises after AIG deal slide
By David Brett
LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) - Britain's top shares were 0.1
percent lower in midday trade on Wednesday as falls in energy
stocks and drugmakers offset a rebound in life insurers and a
rally by Vodafone.
At 1148 GMT, the FTSE 100 <> was down 5.85 points at
5,478.21, having gained 1.5 percent to hit a six-week high on
Tuesday.
The index has rallied almost 9 percent since its year-low in
early February when the FTSE was weighed by fears over the
impact of monetary tightening in China and Greece's debt issue,
and is now up 1.2 percent in the year to date.
"Given the strong gains of the past few sessions, it is not
too surprising to see some sideways trading so far this
morning," said Tim Hughes, head of sales trading at IG Index.
Energy stocks were the heaviest fallers. Cairn Energy
<CNE.L> dropped 0.9 percent, pressured by a price target cut
from Morgan Stanley, while BG Group <BG.L>, Royal Dutch Shell
<RDSa.L> and BP <BP.L> fell 0.3-0.8 percent.
But oil explorer Tullow Oil <TLW.L> bucked the sector trend,
rising 0.8 percent as Morgan Stanley said recent falls presented
an excellent buying opportunity.
Investors banked profits in drugmakers following a recent
strong run, with AstraZeneca <AZN.L>, GlaxoSmithKline <GSK.L>
and Shire <SHP.L> off 0.6-0.7 percent.
The banking sector was weighed by a 1.7 percent fall from
Europe's largest bank HSBC <HSBA.L>, which on Monday reported
below-forecast numbers.
HSBC's shares have see-sawed over the past couple of days,
recovering on Tuesday after Monday's sharp post-results fall.
Other banks, however, were in positive territory after
Standard Chartered <STAN.L>, the emerging markets-oriented bank,
posted in-line results and said 2010 started strongly.
[]
Standard Chartered <STAN.L> added 2.5 percent, while
Barclays <BARC.L>, Lloyds Banking Group <LLOY.L> and Royal Bank
of Scotland <RBS.L> put on 0.8-2.5 percent.
Irish Life & Permanent <IPM.I>, up 3.8 percent said it sees
Royal Bank of Scotland's <RBS.L> Ulster Bank unit as a potential
partner for its banking unit in an expected consolidation.
[]
Among individual issues, British Airways <BAY.L> shed 1.4
percent ahead of traffic data due at 1415 GMT.
Ex-dividend factors knocked 4.83 points off the FTSE 100
index on Wednesday, with Alliance Trust <ATST.L>, BHP Billiton
<BLT.L>, Diageo <DGE.L>, Hammerson <HMSO.L> and RSA Insurance
<RSA.L> all losing their dividend attractions.
INSURERS SHOW LIFE
Prudential <PRU.L> rose 4.3 percent after falling around 20
percent in the past two days since agreeing a $35.5 billion
takeover of the Asian life business of AIG.
Market players also pointed to talk the fall in the share
price may make it a takeover target for overseas companies.
Peers, Legal & General <LGEN.L>, Aviva <AV.L> and Standard
Life <SL.L> also recovered after recent falls, up 1.5-3.3
percent.
Mobile telecoms heavyweight Vodafone <VOD.L> added most
points to the FTSE 100 index, up 1.2 percent as BofA Merrill
Lynch added the stock to its influential "Europe 1" investment
list. []
Miners were back on the front foot. Kazakhmys <KAZ.L>,
Antofagasta <ANTO.L>, Xstrata <XTA.L> and Anglo American <AAL.L>
were up between 0.8-1.9 percent.
On the economic front, the U.S. ADP Employment Report,
Challenger U.S. jobs cut report and U.S. ISM non-manufacturing
in U.S. are due for release on Wednesday, and will be watched as
pointers towards Friday's key U.S. February non-farm payrolls.
(Editing by Dan Lalor)
