FTSE slides 3.1% on growth fears

* FTSE 100 sheds 3.1 pct by midday

* Commodity stocks fall on mounting recession fears

* Banks remain weak; HSBC, StanChart down

(For more on the financial turmoil, click on [nCRISIS])

By Dominic Lau

LONDON, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Britain's leading shares fell 3.1 percent by midday on Wednesday, ending a two-day recovery run, as commodity stocks and banks tumbled on growing fears of a global recession.

By 1033 GMT, the FTSE 100 .FTSE was down 136.8 points at 4,257.4. The UK benchmark rebounded nearly 12 percent in the previous two sessions after plummeting 21 percent last week -- its second worst weekly fall ever.

Miners were big losers, as base metal prices slipped and after Rio Tinto (RIO.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) warned of slowing Chinese demand for commodities because of the world financial crisis and signalled a possible delay in plans to sell $10 billion in assets.

Rio Tinto plunged 10.9 percent, BHP Billiton (BLT.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) shed 10.4 percent, Anglo American (AAL.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) sank 14.2 percent, Xstrata (XTA.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) slumped 16.1 percent and Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) sagged 12.5 percent.

Weaker crude prices weighed on energy stocks, with BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), BG Group (BG.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Cairn Energy (CNE.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) dropping between 1.7 and 5.4 percent.

"Today is one of those days that is indicating we are not at the end of a bear market," said Angus Campbell, head of sales at Capital Spreads.

"There are still recessionary fears. There are still fears about the global outlook for equities. You would get big, big rises after big, big falls but the big, big rises won't be able to cancel out all the falls that we see for quite a while."

Banks were other standout losers, with the FTSE 350 banks index .FTNMX8350 down 2.4 percent. HSBC (HSBA.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), HBOS (HBOS.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Standard Chartered (STAN.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) lost between 0.4 and 8.3 percent.

But Lloyds TSB (LLOY.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) rose 6.4 percent after the Independent said the government was considering a U-turn that would allow the bank to pay dividends to shareholders while still taking advantage of its 37 billion pounds bank bailout scheme.

Barclays (BARC.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) added 2.1 and 0.8 percent, respectively.

Results from U.S. bank JPMorgan (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) later in the day will give further clues on the state of the crisis-hit sector.