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Britain's FTSE boosted by commodity stocks before U.S. jobs data

Fri, 03rd Jun 2016 11:27

* FTSE 100 up 1 percent

* Oil majors lead index higher

* U.S. jobs watched for Fed clues

* Marks & Spencer falls on downgrade (Adds detail and updates prices)

By Kit Rees and Alistair Smout

LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index ralliedon Friday as commodity-related stocks rebounded, with investorsfocused on a U.S. jobs report due later in the day.

Energy shares gained 1.8 percent and mining shares 1.6 percent as oil and copper prices rose.

Brent crude climbed above $50 a barrel to near seven-monthhighs, despite an OPEC meeting that produced no agreement on asupply ceiling. Investors took heart from Saudi Arabia's pledgenot to flood the market and from a decline in U.S. crude supply.

Oil majors BP and Shell were up 2.4 percentand 1.4 percent respectively.

"The perkiness of its commodity sector (is) the main driverof growth this Friday... despite another display of OPEC'sineffectiveness on Thursday," Connor Campbell, financial analystat Spreadex, said in a note.

Britain's FTSE 100 was up 60.51 points, or 1percent, at 6,246.12 by 1056 GMT, set for its biggest gain inmore than a week. The rise took it through severalmoving-average levels, which traders said signalled technicalstrength.

"The FTSE is gathering positive momentum after having brokenthe 200-hour moving average on the upside at the open," saidIpek Ozkardeskaya, a market analyst at London Capital Group.

Traders were focussed on the U.S. non-farm payrolls report,due at 1230 GMT. Expectations are that 164,000 jobs were addedin May, which may be enough to confirm a tightening labourmarket and push the Federal Reserve closer to raising interestrates soon.

Financial markets see a small chance of a rate increase atthe Fed's June 14-15 policy meeting but are pricing in roughly a59 percent probability at the July gathering.

UK housebuilders were the biggest losers, with BarrattDevelopments, Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon all down 0.5 to 1.2 percent. Analysts cited ongoingconcern about Britain's referendum on whether to leave theEuropean Union.

Marks & Spencer retreated 0.3 percent after JPMorgancut the retailer to "underweight" from "neutral".

ADVISORY- Reuters plans to replace intra-day European and UKstock market reports with a Live Markets blog on Eikon (see cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets for site in development). In a real-time, multimedia formatfrom 0600 London time through the 1630 closing bell, it willinclude the best of our market reporting, Stocks Buzz service,Eikon graphics, Reuters pictures, eye-catching research andmarket zeitgeist. Breaking news and dramatic market moves willcontinue to be alerted to all clients and we will continue toprovide a short opening story and comprehensive closing reports.

If you have any thoughts, suggestions orfeedback on this, please email mike.dolan@thomsonreuters.com.

Mike Dolan, Markets Editor EMEA. (Editing by Larry King)

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