Gold miners bring back some shine to Britain's FTSE

(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 ends up 0.1 pct at 6,125.70 points

* Firmer gold price lifts Randgold and Fresnillo (Other OTC: FNLPF - news)

By Atul Prakash

LONDON, May 6 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index closed marginally higher on Friday, with the market recovering from earlier losses as shares in miners Randgold and Fresnillo climbed thanks to a rise in the price of gold.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index ended up 0.1 percent at 6,125.70 points.

European stock markets initially hit session lows after the publication of U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . jobs data, which showed that the U.S. economy added 160,000 jobs last month, the fewest in seven months and well below the 202,000 forecast in a Reuters poll.

While that raised concerns about the state of the world's biggest economy, it also cast doubts on whether the U.S. Federal Reserve would raise interest rates by the end of 2016, and the prospect of a delay soothed some investor worries..

"With (Other OTC: WWTH - news) the prospect of the Fed hiking rates in June now firmly off the table, the markets are being reassured that the benign interest rate environment won't be changing any time soon," said MB Capital trading director Marcus Bullus.

The choppy market conditions lifted the price of gold, which is often favoured as a safe-haven asset.

This in turn boosted the shares of miners Randgold and Fresnillo, which rose 6.6 percent and 6.2 percent respectively.

However, shares in Inmarsat (Other OTC: IMASF - news) , which had already dropped 7.2 percent on Thursday after the satellite company cut its revenue guidance, slumped 5.9 percent after HSBC, Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) , Berenberg and Natixis (LSE: 0IHK.L - news) all reduced their price targets.

The mid-cap FTSE 250 also had some dramatic falls, with Interserve (LSE: IRV.L - news) dropping 16.5 percent after taking a first-half charge of 70 million pounds.

The FTSE 100 is down around 2 percent so far in 2016, and 14 percent below a record high reached in April 2015.

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.

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