Britain's FTSE 100 climbs as Glencore gains

* FTSE 100 index up 2.8 percent

* Glencore (Xetra: A1JAGV - news) gains on hopes for deals

* Mining shares among top gainers (Updates with closing prices, detail)

By Atul Prakash and Alistair Smout

LONDON, Oct (HKSE: 3366-OL.HK - news) 5 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index rose nearly 3 percent on Monday, with a surge in Glencore (Amsterdam: GX8.AS - news) after a volatile week leading mining companies higher.

Glencore shares jumped as much as 20 percent in London, following a 25 percent leap on the Hong Kong market, on hopes the company would sell some assets to cut its debt. The shares closed up 21.1 percent and have now recouped last week's losses.

The stock dropped around 30 percent last Monday, before rallying towards the end of the week.

Reuters reported on Friday that Glencore was in talks with a Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund and China's state-backed grain trader COFCO, along with Canadian pension funds, to sell a stake in its agricultural assets.

Analysts also cited a Telegraph report that Glencore would listen to offers for the entire company, but the paper said its management doubted it could find buyers willing to pay a fair value for the business in the current market.

"Glencore is tracking a spike in its Hong Kong shares and after the Telegraph report," said Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets.

In a filing to the Hong Kong and London stock exchanges, Glencore said it knew of no reason for the share movements.

The UK mining index was up 5 percent, supported by a rise in the copper price. That helped the FTSE 100 index to rise 168.94 points, or 2.8 percent, to 6,298.92 points, with every stock in positive territory.

Oil stocks also rallied, with Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) and BP each up around 5 percent. The price of Brent crude rose, while the United States announced a more than $20 billion settlement of federal and state claims against BP PLC over its deadly Gulf of Mexico oil spill five years ago.

The FTSE 100 is still down over 11 percent from an all-time high hit in April (LSE: 0N69.L - news) , and has taken its biggest quarterly fall since 2011.

Much of the falls have been due to concerns about China, the world's biggest consumer of metals.

However, the FTSE 100 is up 7 percent from lows last week, with some believing that the recent falls were overdone.

"This is a case of hypochondria. The developed world in particular is pretty well inoculated against any contagion that might spread to the markets from an ailing Chinese economy," Alan Higgins, UK chief investment officer at Coutts, said in a note.

Outsourcing company Xchanging (LSE: XCH.L - news) soared around 50 percent after saying it had received separate takeover proposals in recent months from British peer Capita (LSE: CPI.L - news) and U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) .-based private equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC. (Editing by Alison Williams/Ruth Pitchford)