FTSE adds 1.1% as commodities lead; Yell slips

By Michael Taylor

LONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Britain's leading shares ended 1.1 percent higher on Friday as miners and oil companies gave the FTSE 100 .FTSE a boost, but broker downgrades hit several stocks, most notably Yell Group (YELL.L: Quote, Profile, Research).

The FTSE 100 ended up 59.9 points at 5,784.0 in choppy trade after earlier falling as low as 5,703.1.

Late in the session, the blue chip index staged a recovery after U.S markets reversed early losses, but the FTSE 100 still lost 4 percent during the week.

"It's been another frantic week of ups and downs," said Angus Campbell, head of sales at Capital Spreads. "The picture that is being painted at the moment is not a pretty one... The state of the U.S. economy is becoming very, very clear... they are already in recession, I think we all know that."

Miners dominated gainers as metal prices rose and mergers and acquisitions activity continued.

Kazakhmys (KAZ.L: Quote, Profile, Research) climbed 5 percent, Antofagasta (ANTO.L: Quote, Profile, Research) gained 6.3 percent and Vedanta Resources (VED.L: Quote, Profile, Research) tacked on 4.1 percent.

Xstrata (XTA.L: Quote, Profile, Research) added 1.5 percent after Brazil's state development bank BNDES said it saw no reason to oppose local mining giant Vale's (VALE5.SA: Quote, Profile, Research) attempt to buy the Swiss-based miner [ID:nN07389864]

Xstrata also raised its cash offer for Australian coal miner Resource Pacific Ltd RSP.AX by 12 percent to A$1.08 billion ($964 million) and declared it final. Oil rose more than $1 to above $89 a barrel, as traders bought back short positions after prices failed to break below the $86 mark and on expectations cold U.S. weather would boost fuel demand.