Tate tumbles and gold miners fall as UK's FTSE slips

* Tate & Lyle (LSE: TATE.L - news) slides after profit warning

* FTSE 100 falls 0.2 pct to 6,853.44 points

* Fall in gold price hits Randgold and Fresnillo (Other OTC: FNLPF - news)

* FTSE 100 still close to 5-month highs

By Sudip Kar-Gupta

LONDON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Britain's top equity index slipped off five-month highs on Friday as a drop in gold mining shares weighed on the stock market.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index closed 0.2 percent lower at 6,853.44 points, although it remained close to its best level since early September.

Food ingredients company Tate & Lyle - which is a member of the FTSE 250 mid-cap index - also slumped 13.7 percent after issuing a profit warning..

Gold miners Randgold and Fresnillo were the worst FTSE 100 stocks in percentage terms, with both falling around 4 percent, as they were impacted by a drop in the price of gold itself.

The gold price retreated after strong U.S employment data was released on Friday.

While some traders said the signs of progress in the world's biggest economy were encouraging for global stock markets, others said the U.S. jobs data reinforced expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve would raise interest rates by mid-year.

The prospect of higher U.S. rates can hit the gold price, since gold is a non-interest bearing asset, whereas higher U.S rates would boost returns on U.S. Treasuries and enhance their appeal compared to gold.

Dafydd Davies, partner at Charles Hanover Investments, preferred rival European equity indexes - such as the Euro STOXX 50 - to the FTSE given the FTSE's vulnerability to a fall in mining stocks, which count for around 10 percent of the UK index in terms of market capitalisation.

"I am cautious on the FTSE due to its big commodity weighting," said Davies.

MB Capital trading director Marcus Bullus was more upbeat, saying the stronger U.S. economy would lead world stock markets higher.

"Wage growth has been the fly in the ointment for some time now, so January's leap in take-home pay will deliver a real psychological boost to the markets," said Bullus.

The FTSE 100 reached a peak last year of 6,904.86 points, its highest since early 2000, although it lost ground at the end of 2014. The index is up around 4 percent so far in 2015. (Additional reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Larry King/Hugh Lawson)