Britain's FTSE 100 gets boost after weak dollar helps commodities

* FTSE 100 up 0.6 pct

* Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) rises after results

* AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN - news) falls on muted outlook for 2016

By Alistair Smout

LONDON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index rallied on Thursday, rebounding from the previous session's falls after a drop in the dollar boosted commodity prices and gave a lift to mining and oil shares.

Britain's FTSE 100 rose 36.50 points, or 0.6 percent, to 5,873.64 by 0926 GMT, set to snap a three-day losing streak that had seen the index shed 4 percent.

The rally came as expectations for a rate hike from the U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . Federal Reserve evaporated. That sent the dollar tumbling, making dollar-priced crude oil and metals cheaper for holders of other currencies.

The rally in oil prices came even after data showed the oil market remained oversupplied.

"A rebound in crude oil seems to be the main driver as commodity related stocks help ... indices hold in positive territory," said Manoj Ladwa, head of trading at TJM Partners.

"Despite another higher than expected inventory number yesterday, oil traders seem to be keen to buy as dollar weakness makes the price of oil attractive at current levels."

Mining shares rose 5.6 percent, with Anglo American, Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO.L - news) and Glencore (Xetra: A1JAGV - news) up 6.2-8.4 percent.

FTSE 350 Oil and Gas shares rose 3.3 percent. Adding the most points to the index was Royal Dutch Shell (Xetra: R6C1.DE - news) , up 4 percent and contributing more than 15 points to the FTSE 100's rise.

Shell reported results in line with consensus predictions. While it reported its lowest annual income in at least 13 years, it follows a week where the likes of BP and Exxon Mobil (Swiss: XOM.SW - news) reported earnings which disappointed analyst expectations.

"Pessimists might point to a collapse in Shell's fourth quarter profits by some 44 percent. However, optimists would point to the fact that BP saw profits collapse by 91 percent, so comparatively speaking, it's a pretty solid performance," said Alastair McCaig, market analyst at IG (LSE: IGG.L - news) .

Among fallers, AstraZeneca dropped 4.4 percent after it warned that revenue and earnings would fall this year due to the arrival of cheap generic rivals to its cholesterol fighter Crestor.

Telecom Vodafone was last down 0.9 percent in volatile trade after it met expectations with its latest results.

(Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Tom Heneghan)