* Banks higher on hopes U.S. reforms may be tempered
* Miners rally as metal prices recover
* U.S. retail sales data awaited
By Jon Hopkins
LONDON, March 12 (Reuters) - Britain's top shares gained 0.3
percent midsession on Friday, moving higher thanks to strength
in banking issues and a recovery by miners, as metal prices
rallied helped by a weaker dollar.
By 1212 GMT the FTSE 100 <> index was 17.23 points
higher at 5,634.49, having closed 23.31 points, or 0.4 percent
lower on Thursday.
"It looks to be mainly a massive search for yield at the
moment, and it just seems that liquidity has to go somewhere and
at the moment it is still finding its way in to stocks," said
David Morrison, market strategist at GFT Global.
Miners swung around from earlier losses to give the blue
chip index a boost as gold moved higher and copper prices
steadied after recent falls following data that had revived
concerns about monetary tightening in China.
Among the best off, Eurasian Natural Resources <ENRC.L>,
Vedanta Resources <VED.L>, Antofagasta <ANTO.L>, Rio Tinto
<RIO.L> and Anglo American <<AAL.L> added 0.1 to 3.0 percent.
Banks were the best performing blue chips boosted by
overnight strength in their U.S. peers, helped in part by the
possibility that new banking regulations being studied by U.S.
Congress could be watered down. []
Royal Bank of Scotland <RBS.L>, Lloyds Banking Group
<LLOY.L>, Barclays <BARC.L> and Standard Chartered <STAN.L>
added 0.6 and 5.1 percent.
But global banking heavyweight HSBC <HSBA.L> missed out,
topping the FTSE 100 fallers list with a 1.3 percent fall,
unsettled by Thursday's news of data theft by a former employee
at its Swiss private bank.
Among individual blue chip gainers, BSkyB <BSY.L> rose 2.7
percent as traders cited talk that Rupert Murdoch may take the
British satellite broadcaster private.
A number of traders said Murdoch's News Corporation
<NWSA.O>, which owns around 39 percent of the London-listed
firm, could offer 735 pence a share for the outstanding holding.
Mobile telecoms heavyweight Vodafone <VOD.L> also added its
strength to the blue chips, gaining 0.7 percent helped by recent
broker comment.
DEFENSIVES DRIFT
In the absence of much direction, a drift back by
defensively-perceieved stocks was the only real feature among
the blue chip fallers.
Drugmakers were the biggest drag on the FTSE 100 index, with
AstraZeneca <AZN.L>, GlaxoSmithkline <GSK.L>, and Shire <SHP.L>
all losing 0.4 percent as sector sentiment continued to ebb and
flow.
Beverages, tobaccos, and food retailers also fell back, with
SABMiller <SAB.L>, Imperial Tobacco <IMT.L>, and J Sainsbury
<SBRY.L> down 0.5 to 1.0 percent.
Mid cap issues outperformed the blue chips, however, with
the FTSE 250 <> index up 0.9 percent driven by strength in
heavily-weighted housebuilders as takeover speculation again
alighted on the sector.
Bovis Homes <BV.L> was the latest beneficiary, up 4.8
percent as market talk suggested that peer Persimmon <PSN.L> was
interested in the firm.
Earlier in the week, the rumour-mill had mentioned Barratt
Developments <BDEV.L> as a possible bid candidate for Persimmon.
With no domestic data released on Friday, investors' macro
attention was directed across the Atlantic, with U.S. retail
sales data due at 1330 GMT, and the University of Michigan
consumer sentiment survey scheduled for 1455 GMT.
(Editing by Mike Nesbit)
