LONDON: Shares in UK mining and oil & gas companies rallied on Thursday, tracking gains in commodities prices, although companies going "ex-div" weighed on the wider market.
The UK FTSE 100 index had risen by 0.1 percent to 6,266.00 points by 0845 GMT, outperforming its European peers.
Mining companies were the top sectoral gainers, with the FTSE 350 Mining index rising by more than 3 percent, set for its biggest daily gain in a month.
Anglo American, BHP Billiton, Glencore , Antofagasta and Rio Tinto all rose between 2.3 percent and 4 percent, tracking gains in metals prices, with copper supported by a weaker dollar.
Oil companies also rose after the price of Brent oil pushed above $50 a barrel for the first time in nearly 7 months.
"We're seeing that knock-on effect in terms of the FTSE because it's heavily-weighted towards commodity players," Joshua Mahony, market analyst at IG, said.
Carnival, DCC and Whitbread were among the fallers after going ex-dividend, as the stocks traded without entitlement to their latest dividend pay-out.
Outside of the blue chips, newspaper publisher Daily Mail and General Trust fell by 7.9 percent after it downgraded its full-year outlook.
The company said that a downturn in the print advertising market was hurting margins in its media business, resulting in an 11 percent drop in first-half profit.
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