FTSE pushes higher supported by strong miners

Britain's top share index pushed higher on Friday, extending a three-session rally as strength in miners on firmer metal prices countered weakness in part-state owned banks after credit downgrades by Moody's, Reuters reported. Miners saw good support as copper rose 1.3 percent, on course for its best week since April as efforts in Europe to contain the sovereign debt crisis bought buyers back to one of the hardest hit commodities in the past quarter. The Bank of England's monetary policy committee voted on Thursday to undertake a second round of 'quantitative easing' by buying 75 billion pounds of assets to keep the UK's sluggish economic recovery going. The European Central Bank also launched fresh liquidity measures on Thursday to help banks weather the euro zone's worsening debt crisis. The FTSE 100 index was up 21.08 points, or 0.4 percent by 0757 GMT at 5,312.34, having jumped 3.7 percent on Thursday to eradicate all the losses sustained in the first two trading days of this week. Part-nationalised lenders Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland shed 2.4 percent and 1.5 percent respectively as credit agency Moody's cut its ratings on both. Moody's said the cuts were made on the expectation that the UK government would have to continue to support the country's systemically important financial institutions. RBS also suffered as it said it remained one of Europe's most strongly capitalised banks, as it responded to a Financial Times article which said there were fears in government circles that it might need more state aid. The European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Thursday that the EU's executive body proposed a coordinated recapitalisation of banks. AB Foods was also a big FTSE 100 faller, down 2.3 percent as the food producer was knocked by a profit warning from its mid cap peer Premier Foods , the top FTSE 250 faller, down 26.7 percent. Unilever also suffered, off 2.0 percent, with traders noting talk too that peer Nestle could be lowering numbers ahead of third-quarter sales on October 20. Smiths Group was a big individual blue chip faller, off 1.6 percent as Nomura downgraded its rating to "reduce" from "neutral" with a reduced target of 1,050 pence. Investors were also a little nervous ahead of the release of the latest U.S. jobs report, due at 1230 GMT. U.S. non-farm payrolls are forecast to have risen by 60,000 in September, after being unchanged in the previous month, with the jobless rate seen steady at 9.1 percent.