* Q3 GDP data due 0830 GMT
* Wall Street, Asia up on generally positive Q3 results
* BSkyB subscriber numbers at top end of estimates
By Paul Sandle
LONDON, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Gains in banks and commodity
stocks pushed Britain's top share index up 1 percent early on
Friday, after U.S. and Asian equities gained on upbeat earnings,
and ahead of UK third-quarter gross domestic product data.
By 0809 GMT the FTSE 100 .FTSE was 52.21 points higher at
5,259.57, after it closed 50.49 points, or 1 percent lower, on
Thursday.
British third-quarter GDP, due at 0830 GMT, was expected to
show growth of 0.2 percent quarter-on-quarter after a
contraction of 0.6 percent in the second-quarter. Year-on-year
GDP is forecast to have contracted by 4.6 percent after a 5.5
percent annualised fall in the second-quarter.
"Pretty stable start to the markets this morning as
investors wait for UK GDP figures to show that minimal growth in
the third quarter means the UK is out of recession which may
push the market higher again once the figure is released," said
Arifa Sheikh-Usmani, equity trader at Spreadex.
Sterling strengthened against the dollar on expectation of
positive GDP data, he said.
Metal prices were firmer supported as the dollar weakened to
a 14 month low against the euro EUR=.
Kazakhmys KAZ.l was up 2.9 percent, while Anglo American
(AAL.L), Rio Tinto (RIO.L), Xstrata (XTA.L), Lonmin (LMI.L), and
Fresnillo (FRES.L) gained 2.1 percent to 2.8 percent.
Energy stocks were higher as oil CLc1 traded above $81 per
barrel. [ID:nSP507686]
BG Group was 1.5 percent firmer, while Royal Dutch Shell
(RDSa.L) edged up 0.4 percent.
BP (BP.L) was up 1.5 percent after The Times newspaper
reported the oil major had held talks with Ghana National
Petroleum over a possible joint bid for a stake in the Jubilee
deepwater field in Ghana, which contains up to 1.8 billion
barrels of oil.
SKY HIGHER
Pay-TV firm BSkyB (BSY.L) was up 3.2 percent after it added
94,000 net new customers in the first quarter, at the top end of
analyst expectations. [ID:nLK461697]
Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow .DJI closed back above
10,000 after quarterly results from insurer Travelers (TRV.N)
and regional bank PNC Financial (PNC.N) boosted financial
stocks.
After the bell, online retailer Amazon.com (AMZN.O) beat
expectations on earnings, reinforcing the idea that corporate
profitability had stabilised.
Banks benefited from the improved sentiment. Standard
Chartered (STAN.L) was 2.5 percent higher, while Lloyds Banking
Group (LLOY.L), Barclays (BARC.L), HSBC (HSBA.L) and Royal Bank
of Scotland (RBS.L) rose between 1.3 percent to 2.1 percent.
Also set for release at 0830 GMT is the UK BBA Mortgage
Lending data for September, while data from across the Atlantic
include the U.S. existing home sales for September comes out at
1400 GMT.
Lettings activity for UK business property in the third
quarter moved higher for the first time in over two years, led
by a strong recovery in the London office market, the Royal
Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said on Thursday.
[ID:nLM682555]
Defensive pharmaceuticals and fixed line telecoms were the
only FTSE sectors in negative territory.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) was 1 percent down after Jefferies
cut the drugmaker to "hold" from "buy", saying underlying
earnings growth will slow into 2010.
BT (BT.L) was down 0.5 percent, paring gains after it was
boosted by AT&T's positive earnings on Thursday.
(Editing by Mike Nesbit)
