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Britain's FTSE hits one-month high as commodity stocks rally

Reuters - UK Focus

(ADVISORY- Reuters plans to replace intra-day European and UK stock market reports with a Live Markets blog on Eikon - see cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets for site in development. See the bottom of the report for more details)

* FTSE 100 up 0.1 pct

* Miners, oil companies track commodity prices higher

* Ex-divs weigh on index

* Daily Mail slumps on outlook

By Kit Rees

LONDON, May 26 (Reuters) - Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in UK mining and oil & gas companies rallied on Thursday, tracking gains in commodities prices, although companies going "ex-div" weighed on the wider market.

The UK FTSE 100 index had risen by 0.1 percent to 6,266.00 points by 0845 GMT, outperforming its European peers.

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Mining companies were the top sectoral gainers, with the FTSE 350 Mining index rising by more than 3 percent, set for its biggest daily gain in a month.

Anglo American (LSE: AAL.L - news) , BHP Billiton (NYSE: BBL - news) , Glencore (Amsterdam: GX8.AS - news) , Antofagasta (Other OTC: ANFGF - news) and Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO.L - news) all rose between 2.3 percent and 4 percent, tracking gains in metals prices, with copper supported by a weaker dollar.

Oil companies also rose after the price of Brent oil pushed above $50 a barrel for the first time in nearly 7 months.

"We're seeing that knock-on effect in terms of the FTSE because it's heavily-weighted towards commodity players," Joshua Mahony, market analyst at IG (LSE: IGG.L - news) , said.

Carnival (LSE: CCL.L - news) , DCC (LSE: DCC.L - news) and Whitbread (LSE: WTB.L - news) were among the fallers after going ex-dividend, as the stocks traded without entitlement to their latest dividend pay-out.

Outside of the blue chips, newspaper publisher Daily Mail and General Trust fell by 7.9 percent after it downgraded its full-year outlook.

The company said that a downturn in the print advertising market was hurting margins in its media business, resulting in an 11 percent drop in first-half profit.

ADVISORY- Reuters plans to replace intra-day European and UK stock market reports with a Live Markets blog on Eikon (see cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets for site in development). In a real-time, multimedia format from 0600 London time through the 1630 closing bell, it will include the best of our market reporting, Stocks Buzz service, Eikon graphics, Reuters pictures, eye-catching research and market zeitgeist. Breaking news and dramatic market moves will continue to be alerted to all clients and we will continue to provide a short opening story and comprehensive closing reports.

If you have any thoughts, suggestions or feedback on this, please email mike.dolan@thomsonreuters.com.

Mike Dolan, Markets Editor EMEA. (Editing by Alexander Smith)