* FTSE retreats ahead of U.S. GDP figures
* Miners fall as results disappoint
* Banks higher ahead of results next week
By David Brett
LONDON, July 31 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index was
0.1 percent lower around midsession on Friday with weakness in
oils and miner more than offsetting strength in banks, ahead of
the release of second-quarter U.S. GDP figures.
By 1028GMT, the FTSE 100 <> was off 3.18 points at
4,628.43, having closed up 1.9 percent at a 7-month high on
Thursday on reassuring company earnings.
"There is no doubt that the headline act will be the U.S.
GDP numbers, a number that undoubtedly has the potential to
cause a stir on the last day of the trading month," said Jimmy
Yates, head of equities at CMC Markets.
"A weaker number here could set the tone for August and show
us that we still have a long way to go before we start seeing
growth in the world's largest economies."
A Reuters poll of economists showed a median forecast of a
1.5 percent contraction in the U.S. economy in the
second-quarter, on a seasonally adjusted annualised basis,
compared with a 5.5 percent contraction in the first quarter.
Miners fell back, dragged lower following disappointing
results from Anglo American <AAL.L>.
Anglo American <AAL.L> shed 1.4 percent after posting a
sharp fall in first-half profit, having achieved $450 million of
its planned $2 billion in cost savings. []
BHP Billiton <BLT.L>, Eurasian Natural Resources <ENRC.L>,
Antofagasta <ANTO.L>, Randgold Resources <RRS.L> and Rio Tinto
<RIO.L> shed 0.3-1.2 percent.
Vedanta Resources <VED.L>, however, rose 0.3 percent in
spite of saying first-quarter core earnings had more than halved
after a sharp decline in metals prices. []
Energy stocks were the biggest weight on the index, even
though crude remained above $66 a barrel, in response to a
generally weak set of earnings results from the majors.
BG Group <BG.L>, BP <BP.L>, Cairn Energy <CNE.L> and Royal
Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> fell 1.1-2.7 percent.
BANKS GAIN
Banks were the top performers as investors looked ahead to
next week's first-half results.
Barclays <BARC.L> and HSBC <HSBA.L>, which kick off the
sector reporting season on Monday, gain 1.3 percent and 1.6
percent, respectively. Royal Bank of Scotland <RBS.L>, which
reports on Friday, added 0.4 percent.
Lloyds Banking Group <LLOY.L>, scheduled to release its
figures on Wednesday, bucked the trend, falling 0.2 percent.
British Airways <BAY.L> led the travel and leisure stocks
higher and topped the blue-chip leader board <>, up 4.8
percent, after the airline said it has cut operation costs by
around 6.6 percent since last October as it reported
first-quarter operating losses of 94 million pounds.
Banc of America-Merrill Lynch repeated its "buy" rating and
said it was "encouraged by comments that traffic has stabilised
in Q1 and shows some signs of improvement in Q2 ... believe this
is the first step in the revenue recovery process."
TUI Travel <TT.L>, Intercontinental Hotels <IHT.L>, Thomas
Cook <TCG.L>, and Carnival <CCL.L> rose 1.2 to 2.6 percent.
Tobacco companies were also in favour. Imperial Tobacco
<IMT.L> and British American Tobacco <BATS.L> added 1.4 percent
and 1.2 percent, respectively.
Reed Elsevier <REL.L> rallied 2.5 percent higher helped by
news Credit Suisse has upgraded its stance on European media to
"overweight" from "underweight".
The Anglo-Dutch publisher's shares dropped Thursday on news
it had ditched its 2009 earnings per share guidance and its
plans to issue new shares to pay down debt.
Blue-chip peers Thomson Reuters <TRIL.L> and Pearson
<PSON.L> rose 0.6 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.
Midcap media firm United Business Media <UBM.L> jumped 8
percent as it said it was on track to meet 2009 targets after
cutting costs to combat weakness in print and in its trade fairs
business, and said forward bookings for major events were up.
British consumer confidence held steady in July as a small
deterioration in Britons' expectations of their own finances was
offset by a more upbeat view of the economy as a whole, the
GfK/NOP consumer confidence index showed. []
(Editing by Simon Jessop)
