* FTSE rises 1.1 percent after 2-days of losses
* Energy leads as BP chokes gushing well
* Bank lower as Bank of America results fail to impress
By David Brett
LONDON, July 16 (Reuters) - Britain's top shares gained by
midday on Friday, led by rallying commodity stocks, with BP
<BP.L> up after choking its oil well in the Gulf of Mexico,
while banks fell as U.S. corporate results darkened sentiment.
By 1112 GMT, the FTSE 100 <> was up 55.63 points, or
1.1 percent at 5,266.92, having closed 0.8 percent lower at
5,211.29 on Thursday, its second successive session of losses.
BP <BP.L> rose 4.8 percent, topping the FTSE risers list
after the firm said oil is no longer flowing into the Gulf of
Mexico -- at least temporarily -- after it staunched the flow
from its undersea well that ruptured in April and caused the
worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
BP shares are still down almost 37 percent since the
disaster began.
Miners added support to the rebound, bouncing off recent
falls -- the sector <.FTNMX1770> shed 2.5 percent in the
previous two sessions -- with Eurasian Natural Resources
<ENRC.L> the top performer up 3.1 percent.
BHP Billiton <BLT.L> rose 2.1 percent helped by an upgrade
to "overweight" from "neutral" by HSBC.
"The usual suspects are back in vogue," said Rupert
Armitage, director at Shore Capital.
"There is plenty of cash about and given the longer term
outlook and interest rates looking likely to stay where they are
for the next 6 to 9 months, then we could see a bit of cash
coming into the market."
British Airways <BAY.L> added 3.1 percent and mid-cap peer
easyJet <EZJ.L> gained 2.9 percent, both benefiting from
bullish notes from Goldman Sachs and Societe Generale.
Goldman Sachs also lent its backing to property firms, with
British Land <BLND.L> standing out, up 1.0 percent as the broker
raised its rating to "buy" from "neutral", saying it is a
position to benefit from a squeeze in banking finance.
Among individual gainers, luxury group Burberry <BRBY.L>
added 2.2 percent after it said it is to acquire its Chinese
retail franchise operations for 70 million pounds ($107.5
million), with Evolution Securities raising its target price.
And Invensys <ISYS.L> rose 2.4 percent as UBS upped its
rating for the engineer to "buy" from "neutral", ahead of a
trading update due on July 28.
Telecommunications firms BT <BT.L>, up 1.6 percent, and
Vodafone <VOD.L>, up 1.0 percent, were given a lift as Jeffries
started coverage on both companies with "buy" ratings in an
upbeat note on the sector.
BANKS WEIGH
Banks remained the biggest weight on the index, with
Barclays <BARC.L> and Lloyds Banking Group <LLOY.L> down 1.8 and
1.4 percent, unsettled by the weakness in U.S. peer JP Morgan's
investment banking operations on Thursday.
Bank of America <BAC.N> reported second-quarter numbers on
Friday, which failed to excite the market, while investors
awaited earnings from Citigroup <C.N> later in the session.
[]
Meanwhile, General Electric Co <GE.N> reported a 16.1
percent rise in second-quarter profit. []
Macro attention will be on the latest U.S. inflation
numbers, due at 1330 GMT.
"The fear is that the U.S. CPI data could well come in lower
than expected and yet again send investors running worried of a
slowdown in the US economic recovery," said Jimmy Yates, head of
equities at CMC Markets.
(Editing by Samia Nakhoul)
