Britain's FTSE edges lower despite rebound in gold miners

* FTSE 100 down 0.1 pct

* Gold stabilises, pushes mining shares up

* UK public finances improve less than expected

* IG Group slumps after profit hit

* AO World shares up 9 pct (Adds quote, updates prices)

By Liisa Tuhkanen

LONDON, July 21 (Reuters) - Britain's top stock index edged lower on Tuesday as a a mixed set of corporate results and lingering concern over commodity price falls outweighed a rebound for gold-mining companies and a rally in car insurers.

Data released on Tuesday also showed UK public finances improved less than expected in June.

The FTSE 100 index was down 0.1 percent at 6,781.81 points by 1423 GMT after gaining 0.2 percent in the previous session. Receding fears over Greece have helped UK and European stocks rally in recent weeks, although UK equities remain nearly 5 percent below April's record high.

"It's all a little bit lacklustre today, and I suppose in some respect it's because we're in the eye of US and UK earnings," said London Capital Group analyst Brenda Kelly.

"It will remain to be seen what kind of earnings we can come to expect over the next number of days, which could give us a proper direction from here."

Gold-miners Fresnillo (Other OTC: FNLPF - news) and Randgold were among the top performers, up 4.3 and 3.2 percent respectively. Both fell more than 4 percent in the previous session after a slump in gold prices wiped out more than $8 billion of the gold-mining sector's equity market capitalisation.

Gold prices on Tuesday stabilised just above a five-year low though some investors expect further declines.

"The gold price has had a bit of a bounce ... It's helping out the miners," said Mark Ward, head of execution trading at Sanlam Securities.

In other gainers, specialist car insurers Admiral, Direct Line and eSure rose between 4.5 and 1.1 percent after a closely watched AA index showed that British car insurance premiums jumped more than 5 percent in the second quarter compared with the previous three months. {ID:nL5N1011D5}

On the downside, Easyjet (Other OTC: ESYJY - news) fell the most among blue-chip stocks, shedding 2.8 percent to 1673 pence after Commerzbank (Xetra: CBK100 - news) cut the airline's price target to 1550 pence from 1700 pence.

Corporate results were mixed: IG Group shares fell 7 percent after reporting a hit to full-year earnings from the Swiss franc's fluctuations in January. Online domestic appliances retailer AO World jumped 3.6 percent after reporting a strong start to second-quarter trading.

The second-quarter earnings season is in its early days but so far majority of companies that have reported results in the United States and Europe have beaten earnings expectations, according to JPMorgan (LSE: JPIU.L - news) . (Additional reporting by Lionel Laurent; Editing by Hugh Lawson (Other OTC: LWSOF - news) )