By Sudip Kar-Gupta
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's top equity index rebounded on Tuesday, helped by stronger mining stocks, although its advance was curbed by a drop in banking shares such as Standard Chartered (L:STAN) and Lloyds (L:LLOY).
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index (FTSE) was up by 0.5 percent at 6,397.44 points going into the close of the trading session, bouncing back from a 0.4 percent decline on Monday.
Mining companies such as Glencore (L:GLEN), BHP Billiton (L:BLT) and Rio Tinto (L:RIO) added the most points to the FTSE. The FTSE 350 Mining Index (FTNMX1770) rose 1.7 percent after the price of copper neared a two-week high.
However, banks retreated.
Standard Chartered slumped 8 percent to a near five-year low after the Asia-focused bank warned investors of lower second-half profits. Its quarterly earnings were hit by a surge in bad loans and higher regulation and compliance costs.
"Not only has credit started to deteriorate and will be the driver of the next earnings downgrade cycle, but volume, revenue and cost trends are weak," said Joseph Dickerson, an analyst at Jefferies, commenting on Standard Chartered's results.
Part-nationalised bank Lloyds also fell 1.8 percent after it took a 900 million-pound ($1.5 billion) charge for compensating customers who were mis-sold loan insurance. It was another blow to the bank, which only narrowly passed a health check by European regulators.
BP'S PROFITS DROP
BP (L:BP) edged up by 1 percent, as its decision to raise its dividend helped to offset a decline in profits, which were hit by falling oil prices and as Western sanctions led to a drop in income for BP's Russian partner, Rosneft (MM:ROSN).
The FTSE 100 hit a peak of 6,904.86 points at the start of September, its highest since early 2000. It then slumped to 15-month lows in October as weak European economic data knocked back stock markets.
Nevertheless, Logic Investments' trading director Darren Easton expected the index to climb going into the end of 2014, adding he would look to buy into the FTSE at current levels.
He said he had been reassured by the fact that the FTSE had managed to climb off its earlier 15-month lows over the last week, while the UK stock market remained supported by signs of strength in the British economy and record low interest rates.
"We're bullish in the immediate term. There may be one more pullback to come, but the FTSE should get back to somewhere near the earlier year-highs by the year-end," said Easton.
(Additional reporting by Francesco Canepa and Steve Slater; Editing by Larry King and Susan Fenton)