Choppy FTSE rises amid data blizzard

By Michael Taylor

LONDON (Reuters) - The leading share index ended up almost 1 percent during an extremely volatile trading session on Thursday, as data led stocks on a rollercoaster ride with banks rising and oil companies falling.

The FTSE 100 .FTSE gained 50.3 points, or 0.9 percent at 5,476.6 having touched a five-month low earlier in the day. The index is down 15 percent so far in 2008.

Thursday was dominated by data from across the Atlantic, the English Channel and closer to home.

The U.S. Labor Department said that 62,000 nonfarm jobs were lost last month, bringing jobs shed for the year so far to 438,000 as housing market woes chilled growth. The unemployment rate, which shot up sharply in May, held steady at 5.5 percent. ID:nN03278198

And according to the Institute for Supply Management report, the U.S. service sector shrank unexpectedly in June, while inflation pressures soared to a record high for the survey's 11-year history.

Also offering market direction, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said the ECB has no bias on future policy moves after it raised interest rates for the first time in over a year on Thursday, taking them to 4.25 percent from 4.0 percent.

Banking stocks, hit hard by the credit crunch and writedown fears, buoyed Britain's benchmark share index to add 23 index points. HBOS HBOS.L, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) and Barclays (BARC.L) gained 2.5-7.6 percent.

Traders cited renewed market talk that HBOS was to sell its BankWest asset in Australia for its sharp rise. HBOS declined to comment.