Britain"s top share index was up 1.7 percent at midday on Monday, fuelled by strength in miners and energy stocks thanks to firmer commodity prices, while improved risk appetite also boosted banks, Reuters reported. At 1209 GMT, the FTSE 100 index was 90.46 points higher at 5,341.87, having closed 0.3 percent lower on Friday and fallen in the previous three sessions. The UK blue chip index is up 20.5 percent this year, and has soared more than 50 percent since touching a six year trough in March. Miners bolstered the recovery as the price of gold powered to a record above $1,160 an ounce on Monday, lifted by a retreating dollar, which also promoted a sharp rise in copper prices. "With no end in sight for the dollar"s slump, gold"s success looks set to continue pushing the FTSE towards the psychological 5,500 barrier," said Philip Gillett, sales trader at IG Index. Eurasian Natural Resources, Randgold Resources, Fresnillo, Lonmin, Xstrata, and Rio Tinto gained 3.8 to 4.8 percent. Banking issues, which tend to be beneficiaries of increasing risk appetite, also rose strongly. Barclays, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Royal Bank of Scotland took on 2.2 to 3.2 percent. Lloyds Banking Group added 2.7 percent after it said it had agreed to swap 8.78 billion pounds (14.5 billion) of bonds as part of a deal aimed at funding its exit from a costly state-backed insurance scheme for bad debts. Oil majors pushed higher as crude prices also benefited from the weaker dollar. BP, Royal Dutch Shell, and BG Group added 0.7 to 1.6 percent. Tullow Oil missed out on the gains, however, shedding 0.9 percent as investors assessed the implications of the sale by Heritage Oil of its Ugandan operations, in which Tullow is a 50 percent partner. Mid-cap explorer Heritage reversed earlier gains to shed 5.1 percent as the news of the Ugandan disposal to Italy"s Eni for up to $1.5 billion was balanced by the ending of merger talks with Turkey"s Genel. Otherwise, a hotchpotch of defensive issues were among the limited blue chip fallers, with testing equipment firm Intertek losing 0.8 percent, packaging firm Bunzl shedding 0.5 percent, and outsourcing group Serco also falling 0.5 percent.
