By Kit Rees and Alistair Smout
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's top share index rallied on Friday as commodity-related stocks rebounded, with precious metals miners in demand after a disappointing U.S. jobs report.
U.S. jobs data showed that the U.S. economy created the fewest number of jobs in more than five years in May, with non-farm payrolls rising by only 38,000 jobs last month. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a rise of 164,000.
Such weakness in the U.S. labour market could make it more difficult for the U.S. Federal Reserve to hike interest rates.
"This is a really bad figure and there will be consequences," Ken Odeluga, market analyst at City Index, said, adding that he expected the Federal Reserve to soften its hawkish tone.
Britain's FTSE 100 (FTSE) was up 21.06 points, or 0.3 percent, at 6,206.67 points by 1302 GMT, reducing gains made earlier in the session.
Precious metals miners were in demand as investors sought safe-haven assets with Fresnillo (L:FRES) and Randgold Resources (L:RRS) rallying 5.7 percent and 4.1 percent respectively.
Mining (FTNMX1770) shares gained 2.5 percent and energy shares (FTNMX0530) were also up 1.6 percent as oil and copper prices rose.
Brent crude climbed above $50 a barrel to near seven-month highs, despite an OPEC meeting that yielded no deal on a supply ceiling. Investors took heart from Saudi Arabia's pledge not to flood the market and from a decline in U.S. crude supply.
Oil majors BP (L:BP) and Shell (L:RDSa) were up 2 percent and 1.4 percent respectively.
"The perkiness of its commodity sector (is) the main driver of growth this Friday... despite another display of OPEC's ineffectiveness on Thursday," Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex, said in a note.
Among fallers, Marks & Spencer (L:MKS) retreated 0.7 percent after JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) cut the retailer to "underweight" from "neutral".
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Mike Dolan, Markets Editor EMEA.