FTSE down 0.7 pct awaiting data, inflation report

* Banks weak; ongoing cash call concerns

* Miners retreat with commodity prices

* UK unemployment, BoE inflation report awaited

By Jon Hopkins

LONDON, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Britain's top shares fell 0.7 percent early on Tuesday weighed down by weak banks and miners ahead of the release of UK unemployment numbers and the latest Bank of England inflation report.

Investors were also awaiting the outcome of the U.S. rate-setting FOMC meeting later in the day.

By 0749 GMT, the FTSE 100 .FTSE index was 32.22 points lower at 4,639.12 after closing down 1.1 percent on Tuesday, its biggest fall in a fortnight after hitting 2009 highs on Friday.

"It's just not really going to get its act together until we get the quarterly inflation report, and even then I think it's going to hang on to itself until we see what the FOMC does later on this evening," said Manus Cranny, head of sales at MF Global.

Weak banks were the biggest drag on the blue chips once again as ongoing fears of potential cash calls in the sector continued to have an impact.

Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L), which was reported as considering a multi-billion pounds share offering at the weekend, failed to allay that fear as it announced it will sell its asset management business, Insight, to The Bank of New York Mellon for a total consideration of 235 million pounds. [ID:nWLA1025]

Lloyds shares shed 2.4 percent, while Barclays (BARC.L), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L), HSBC (HSBA.L) and Standard Chartered (STAN.L) lost 1.0 to 3.0 percent.

Miners also dragged on the FTSE 100 as commodity prices fell back amid concerns over the strength of any economic recovery ahead of comments from the BoE and the Fed.

Silver miner Fresnilo (FRES.L) was the worst off, down 4.8 percent, while Kazakhmys (KAZ.L), Rio Tinto (RIO.L), Antofagasta (ANTO.L), Lonmin (LMI.L), Xstrata (XTA.L) and BHP Billiton (BLT.L) dropped 1.2 to 3.2 percent.

BHP Billiton, the world's largest miner, gave a cautiously optimistic outlook for commodities demand on Wednesday after posting a 51 percent dive in second-half profit, its first profit fall in seven years. [ID:nSYD494816]

Oil majors managed gains, however, as crude prices CLc1 stabilised around $69, with BG Group (BG.L) adding 1.2 percent, supported by an ING upgrade to "hold" on valuation grounds, while Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) gained 0.6 percent.