*Commodity stocks gain on firmer raw material prices
* Banks up, helped by U.S. stress test results, RBS jumps
* U.S. non-farm payrolls due out at 1230 GMT
By Tricia Wright
LONDON, May 8 (Reuters) - Britain's leading shares were up
1.5 percent at midday on Friday, fuelled by gains from oil
stocks, tracking firmer crude prices, and by strength from banks
in the wake of the U.S. stress tests.
By 1044 GMT the FTSE 100 <> was up 66.25 points higher
at 4,464.93, after closing up 2.19 points at 4,4398.68 on
Thursday. The blue-chip index is up 5 percent this week, and
enjoyed its best monthly run in six years in April.
"We've seen a pretty amazing week on the FTSE and it looks
like it's set to continue," said Mark Priest, senior equities
trader at ETX Capital. "It looks like sentiment is on the
upside."
Oil stocks added the most points to the index, gaining
ground with crude prices <CLc1> rising to almost $58 per barrel.
Heavyweights BP <BP.L>, Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> and BG Group
<BG.L> added between 1.9 and 2.2 percent.
Against a background of firmer metal prices, miners also
rose, with Kazakhmys <KAZ.L>, Anglo American <AAL.L>, Vedanta
Resources <VED.L>, Xstrata <XTA.L>, BHP Billiton <BLT.L>, and
Fresnillo <FRES.L> adding between 1.7 and 5.1 percent.
British factory gate inflation eased to its lowest in five
years last month but was still stronger than expected, while
input prices fell at their fastest annual rate in nearly 7
years, official data showed on Friday. []
U.S. stocks fell the previous session but index futures
<DJc1> <SPc1> <NDc1> rose after the official government results
were released as U.S. regulators told leading banks to raise
$74.6 billion to build a capital cushion officials hope will
restore faith in financial firms.
UK banks (where stress tests have already been conducted by
the local regulator) were higher. Lloyds Banking Group <LLOY.L>,
HSBC <HSBA.L> and Standard Chartered <STAN.L> put on between 1.4
and 5 percent.
Royal Bank of Scotland <RBS.L> surged almost 14 percent,
topping the blue-chip leaderboard, after the part-nationalised
lender issued a trading update which traders said contained no
negative surprises.
RBS fell to a small first-quarter loss after bad debts
quadrupled and it took another 2.1 billion pound ($3.2 billion)
writedown on risky assets. []
PAYROLLS EYED
U.S. non-farm payrolls for April, due out at 1230 GMT, would
give further clues as to whether the pace of economic decline is
slowing.
Economists polled by Reuters expected a median 590,000 jobs
were lost in the United States in April compared with a loss of
663,000 in the previous month.
Among other individual movers, Inmarsat <ISA.L> added 6.3
percent after the satellite communications company said it was
confident of meeting its full-year revenue growth target after
first-quarter sales rose 10.5 percent. []
Private equity group 3i <III.L> jumped 14.2 percent. The
FTSE 250-listed company launched a 732-million-pound rights
issue and said it would use the money to pay down debt and
bolster its balance sheet.
Elsewhere on the second tier, Taylor Wimpey <TW.L> gained
9.9 percent after the beleaguered housebuilder said it would
turn to shareholders for 533 million pounds ($799.6 million) in
a fully underwritten placing and open offer, to reduce its debt
pile.
($1=.6666 Pound)
(Additional reporting by Dominic Lau; editing by Simon Jessop)
