By Tricia Wright
LONDON (Reuters) - The leading share index ended 0.5 percent higher on Friday, led by miners boosted by higher metal prices and upbeat broker notes, but British Airways (BA) <BAY.L> fell after reporting a record full-year loss.
The FTSE 100 index <.FTSE> ended the session up 19.82 points at 4,365.29. The benchmark index is down 1.6 percent this year, and has gained over 26 percent since a six-year low hit on March 9.
Trading volumes were thin ahead of a long public holiday weekend in Britain and the United States.
On the upside, miners recovered from sharp falls in the previous session, lifted by higher metal prices, upgrades from Goldman Sachs and price target hikes from Credit Suisse.
Fresnillo <FRES.L> and Kazakhmys <KAZ.L> claimed the top two spots on the FTSE 100 leaderboard, up 7.8 and 6.1 percent, respectively, with Rio Tinto <RIO.L>, Lonmin <LMI.L> and Vedanta Resources <VED.L> gaining 3.7 to 4.2 percent.
BA was the standout FTSE 100 faller, ending the session down 3.8 percent, after the airline reported a record loss, nearly doubled its debt and cancelled its dividend.
Analysts said the results underlined worries about the broader economy.
"British Airways has dominated the headlines today; if it said one thing above all else, it's that there's no sign to the company of any green shoots in the UK economy," said Howard Wheeldon, strategist at BGC Partners.
"It gives a lie to thoughts of any quick recovery," he said.
Oil majors added strength, however, as crude moved higher again, with BP <BP.L>, BG Group <BG.L>, and Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> adding 0.5 to 2.3 percent.
Banks were broadly higher, recovering after falls on Thursday, with Standard Chartered <STAN.L>, Royal Bank of Scotland <RBS.L>, Barclays <BARC.L> and Lloyds Banking Group <LLOY.L> adding between 0.5 and 2.9 percent.
Exane BNP Paribas raised its rating for Lloyds to 'neutral' from 'underperform', while reducing its target by 14 percent to 60 pence.
Real estate issues got a boost from sector consolidation moves, with mid-cap Segro <SGRO.L> up 5 percent after saying it had made a takeover approach to small cap peer Brixton <BXTN.L>, up 24.1 percent.
British Land <BLND.L>, hit by disappointing results on Thursday, rallied 4.5 percent, while Land Securities <LAND.L> gained 1.7 percent, and Hammerson <HMSO.L> took on 2.9 percent.
Cable & Wireless <CW.L> extended Thursday's post-results decline, down 3.4 percent with a number of brokers cutting target prices for the telecoms company.
SABMiller <SAB.L> was also weak, down 0.7 percent as JP Morgan downgraded its rating to 'neutral' from 'overweight' in a European beverages review.
Drug issues were the main drag on blue chip sentiment, with GlaxoSmithKline <GSK.L>, AstraZeneca <AZN.L>, and Shire <SHP.L> down 0.9 to 1.3 percent.
Investors shrugged aside the second reading for British first-quarter GDP which was unrevised, with Thursday's move by ratings agency S&P to revise its outlook for Britain to negative from stable continuing to weigh on underlying sentiment.
(Additional reporting by Jon Hopkins; Editing by Hans Peters)