FTSE dips by midday on banks, oils; GSK supports

                                
 By Dominic Lau
                                
 LONDON, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 <.FTSE> index
dipped by mid-session on Friday, led by banks and oil shares,
but heavyweight GlaxoSmithKline <GSK.L> offered some support
after billionaire Warren Buffett invested in the drugmaker.
                                
 At 1130 GMT, the FTSE 100 <.FTSE> was down 18.9 points, or
0.3 percent at 5,860.4, well off its day's high of 5,915.0. The
UK's blue-chip index has advanced 1.3 percent so far this week,
but is down 9 percent for the year on fears of a U.S. recession.
                                
 "The...fact that the U.S. economy is not looking good
outweighs any benefit from interest rate cuts over there," said
Mark Priest, a trader at TradIndex.
                                
 "A lot of banks are reporting over the next couple of weeks,
and people will be keen to see what they will come up with," he
said. "It's going to be volatile... we haven't really had any
good news."
                                
 Banks fell, with Barclays <BARC.L>, Lloyds TSB <LLOY.L>,
HBOS <HBOS.L>, Standard Chartered <STAN.L> and Alliance &
Leicester <ALLL.L> down between 0.7 and 3.6 percent.
                                
 A six-notch rating cut from Moody's Investors Service on
FGIC Corp's bond insurance arm meanwhile sent investors a fresh
reminder of the credit turmoil that has hamstrung the financial
markets.
                                
 Citi said in a note that Swiss bank UBS <UBSN.VX> could need
up to $18 billion in additional write-downs in 2008. The bank
has already written down $18 billion in losses in 2007 due to
its exposure to U.S. subprime mortgages and linked assets.
                                
 BP <BP.L> dipped 1.3 percent after ABN AMRO cut its price
target on the oil major by 7.9 percent. Royal Dutch Shell
<RDSa.L> eased 0.7 percent and Cairn Energy <CNE.L> shed 1.5
percent.
                                
 But GSK rose 1.6 percent after Berkshire Hathaway <BRKa.N>,
the holding company controlled by Buffett, said it owned 1.51
million American depository receipts of the drugmaker.
                                
 Fellow drugmaker AstraZeneca <AZN.L> added 0.5 percent.
                                
 In testimony to U.S. Congress on Thursday, Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke held the door open to more interest rate
cuts to help the struggling U.S. economy, but said the central
bank expected growth to pick up later in the year.
                                
 U.S. industrial production and University of Michigan
consumer sentiment data from 1415 GMT will give investors a
further gauge of the strength of the world's largest economy.
                                
 
                                
 GO-AHEAD DIVES
                                
 Bus and rail firm FirstGroup <FGP.L> lost 5.2 percent to top
the losers' list on the FTSE 100 after fellow bus and train
operator Go-Ahead <GOG.L> warned about its rail business.
Mid-cap Go-Ahead plunged nearly 16 percent.
                                
 Miners were mostly firmer, with BHP Biliton <BLT.L>, Rio
Tinto <RIO.L>, Kazakhmys <KAZ.L>, Vedanta Resources <VED.L> and
takeover target Xstrata <XTA.L> up between 0.1 and 2.7 percent.
But Anglo American <AAL.L> and Antofagasta <ANTO.L> slipped.
                                
 A rating upgrade and price target hike from UBS also boosted
Vedanta.
                                
 Also in the mid-cap, Tate & Lyle <TATE.L> advanced 2.3
percent after the sugar refiner and sweetener maker said profit
before tax for the four months to end-January was marginally
ahead of its expectations.
 (Additional reporting by Michael Taylor; Editing by Richard
Hubbard)