* Banks higher; BoE keeps rates on hold and QE unchanged
* Miners, oils weak with commodity prices
* Broker comment boosts BSkyB and BT
By Harpreet Bhal
LONDON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Britain's top shares added 0.8
percent around midday on Thursday, lifted by firmer banks as
investors' nerves were soothed after the Bank of England kept
interest rates and quantitative easing unchanged, as expected.
At 1230 GMT, the FTSE 100 <> was up 37.15 points at
5,241.03 points, having ended at its lowest closing level in
more than a week on Wednesday.
Banks were big winners, after the Bank of England kept
interest rates at a record low of 0.5 percent, and made no
changes to its 200 billion pound ($324.9 billion) quantitative
easing programme. []
Royal Bank of Scotland <RBS.L>, HSBC <HSBA.L>, Lloyds
Banking Group <LLOY.L>, Barclays <BARC.L> and Standard Chartered
<STAN.L> climbed 1.5 to 5.9 percent.
The sector was buoyed by media reports that UK lenders had
agreed to reschedule Dubai World's [] debts, and by
relief over the lack of a mooted windfall tax in Wednesday's
pre-budget report.
"There's been no real shock (from the Bank of England). The
market is anticipating that there will be a final decision on
whether to scale up quantitative easing or completely end it
probably in February or March next year," said Joshua Raymond,
market strategist at City Index.
Drugmakers gained ground, rebounding from weakness in the
previous session. GlaxoSmithKline <GSK.L> and AstraZeneca
<AZN.L> added 1.1 and 0.1 percent respectively. The companies
said they were not involved in Wednesday's raids by the European
Union antitrust authorities on several pharmaceutical companies.
[]
Broker upgrades helped selected firms push higher. BSkyB
<BSY.L> climbed 3.1 percent after Cazenove raised its rating to
"outperform" from "in-line".
Other media issues also rose, with Pearson <PSON.L>, boosted
again by recent good news from U.S. peer Mcgraw-Hill <HP.N> up
1.5 percent, and Reed Elsiver <REL.L>, upgraded by Deutsche Bank
on Wednesday adding 0.9 percent.
BT Group <BT.L> rose 1.7 percent as Morgan Stanley upped its
target price to 190 pence from 175 pence and kept its
"overweight" rating.
MINERS WEAK
Mining companies were lower with metals prices weak on
demand worries and dollar strength, with copper hitting a
two-week low. Antofagasta <ANTO.L>, BHP Billiton <BLT.L>, Rio
Tinto <RIO.L> and Xstrata <XTA.L> shed 0.3 to 1.1 percent.
Bucking the trend, Kazakhmys <KAZ.L> added 1.2 percent. The
Kazakh copper producer said it will double the stake it is
selling in the country's biggest power plant to 50 percent for
an increased price of $681 million. []
Oil majors were also on the back foot, pressured by a drop
in crude prices <CLc1> to around $71 a barrel. BP <BP.L>, Royal
Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> and Tullow Oil <TLW.L> were between 0.1 and
1.2 percent lower.
The U.S. initial weekly jobless claims numbers, due at 1330
GMT, will likely be of interest after last week's
smaller-than-expected fall in U.S. non-farm payrolls.
The main economic data from across the Atlantic for release
on Thursday is October's international trade figures, also
expected at 1330 GMT.
(Reporting by Harpreet Bhal, Editing by Sharon Lindores)
($1=.6156 Pound)
