* Banks weak; Standard Chartered update fails to inspire
* Miners, energy stocks drag as commodities soften
* Wall Street seen down as Fed comments assessed
By David Brett
LONDON, June 25 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index fell 0.6 percent by midday on Thursday as weak banks, oils and miners weighed, with Wall Street also seen weaker.
By 1130 GMT the FTSE 100 was down 24.89 points at 4,255.09, after it gained 1.2 percent to close at 4,279.98 in the previous session.
The index is down 3.5 percent this year, but is 23.6 percent higher than a six-year low set on March 9.
"There's no decent news for the markets to build on and we went a little too far yesterday. We're on an uncertain path and lost for direction," said Howard Wheeldon, strategist at BGC Partners.
Banks were the blue chip biggest fallers, led by Standard Chartered, down 3.1 percent after its trading update failed to excite.
Standard Chartered said it remained cautious on the outlook, with consumer banking income for the first-half expected to be lower than the previous six months and bad debts rising sharply in the division.
Among other banks, Barclays HSBC, and Lloyds Banking Group shed between 1 and 2 percent, with U.S. financials also expected to be under pressure.
Only Royal Bank of Scotland bucked the weak trend, gaining 3.7 percent after Cazenove raised the bank to "outperform" from "underperform".
Dow Jones futures, S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures were all in negative territory as traders reflected on comments Wednesday from the Federal Reserve saying it saw signs the U.S. recession was easing. "Speculation is building that a hike in U.S. interest rates will be seen before the year end so this itself will have the potential to weigh on equities," said Matt Buckland, a dealer at CMC Markets.
Investors will eye the final reading of U.S. first-quarter GDP, due at 1230 GMT, although no revision is expected to the 2.8 percent preliminary estimate.
Market heavyweight Vodafone dropped 1.8 percent as Goldman Sachs downgraded the European telecoms sector to "neutral" from "attractive" and removed the UK mobile telecoms firm from its "Conviction buy" list.
Miners fell back as metal prices retreated. Rio Tinto, Kazakhmys, Lonmin and BHP Billiton fell between 1.3 and 1.6 percent.
Anglo American shed 0.6 percent, while Xstrata added 0.6 percent. Aviva Investors said on Wednesday that it fully supports Anglo American's rejection of Xstrata's merger proposal as it sees little financial or strategic merit for the deal.
Energy stocks were also weaker as crude hovered around $69 per barrel, still below the highs above $72 struck last week.
BP, Royal Dutch Shell, and Cairn Energy fell between 0.7 and 0.9 percent.
Ericsson Chief Executive Carl-Henric Svanberg is to become chairman of BP in a surprise appointment that ends the oil major's lengthy search for a new chairman. Svanberg will take over from Peter Sutherland at BP in January 2010.
TULLOW TOP
Tullow Oil, however, added 3.3 percent with traders pointing to speculative interest following recent takeover deals for oil explorers, notably its Ugandan field partner Heritage Oil
Standard Life also saw good demand, up 2.2 percent as Banc of America-Merrill Lynch raised its rating to "buy" from "neutral" in a review of the European insurance sector.
Otherwise a switch back towards defensive issues, as risk appetite waned, was the main feature among the blue chip gainers.
Food retailers recovered some of Wednesday's losses, with Wm Morrison Supermarkets, J. Sainsbury and Tesco gaining between 0.2 and 0.6 percent. (Editing by Rupert Winchester)