FTSE down 0.6% on banks, oils; off lows

* FTSE 100 falls 0.6 pct

* Financials down after U.S. lawmakers reject bailout plan

* Energy stocks slip on weak metal prices

* Miners gained on firmer gold price (For a TAKE A LOOK on the financial crisis, click on [ID:nN22402709])

By Dominic Lau

LONDON, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index was down 0.6 percent early on Tuesday, led by banks and energy stocks after U.S. lawmakers rejected a $700 billion banking bailout package, but miners boosted by gold prices lent some support and the overall market was off earlier lows.

By 0759 GMT, the FTSE 100 .FTSE was down 26.4 points at 4,792.4, well off its low of 4,671.0 -- its lowest level since November 2004.

The UK benchmark plunged 5.3 percent on Monday, and has fallen 15 percent this month, on track for its biggest monthly decline since October 1987 when it tumbled 26 percent.

Banks were among the top-weighted fallers, with the FTSE 350 banks index .FTNMX8350 shedding 2.7 percent.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L), Barclays (BARC.L), HSBC (HSBA.L), HBOS HBOS.L, Lloyds TSB (LLOY.L) and Standard Chartered (STAN.L) were initially down between 0.5 and 11.8 percent but then came off their lows.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI plunged on Monday in its biggest decline ever after the House of Representatives voted down the bailout plan, spooking investors who fear for the future of global markets and the U.S. economy. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei average .N225 shed 4.1 percent.

But some analysts were hopeful that the U.S. would eventually push through a bailout package to rescue the financial sector.

"It's certainly my working assumption that there is some sort of agreement reached in the U.S. and based on that I would expect the market to recover quite strongly from yesterday's sell-off," said Darren Winder, equity strategist at Cazenove.

"It's a softish day. Equities are now getting to extreme valuations where fundamentally there is an awful lot of value."

Other financials also fell sharply initially, with Old Mutual (OML.L), Prudential (PRU.L), Standard Life (SL.L) and Aviva (AV.L) losing 0.9 to 3.8 percent. Hedge fund Man Group (EMG.L) sagged 2.1 percent.