Energy and mining stocks support struggling FTSE

By Simon Falush

LONDON (Reuters) - The blue-chip share index eked out a gain on Friday as record high crude oil boosted energy stocks, outweighing the impact of losses in supermarkets and banks sparked by concerns over the health of the economy.

The commodity-heavy FTSE 100 .FTSE closed up 11.7 points, or 0.2 percent, at 5,529.9 points, after slipping 2.6 percent to its lowest close since late March on Thursday.

It has fallen 15 percent this year and 8.8 percent in June.

"It's the calm after the storm after the big falls yesterday and there's not a great deal of confidence to reverse them," said Andrew Bell, head of research at Rensburg Sheppards.

"Oil prices are high and banks are nervous about lending so there's an overlap between the credit crunch and concerns about inflation... so valuations are low," he said, adding that it was hard to see a catalyst for a share price rally.

Energy companies were the biggest gainers as oil jumped to a record high above $142 a barrel while gold rallied to its strongest level in a month and other metal prices surged, driving up mining stocks.

Tullow Oil (TLW.L) was up 5.3 percent, BG Group was up 4.2 percent and Cairn Energy (CNE.L) gained 3.9 percent while miners Lonmin (LMI.L), BHP Billiton BHP.L, Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC.L) and Kazakhmys (KAZ.L) rose by between 4.1 and 3.5 percent.

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