* Rising commodity prices lift oils and miners
* Drugmakers higher on GlaxoSmithKline vaccine approval * G20 in focus as leaders to keep stimulus in place
By Harpreet Bhal
LONDON, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Britain's top shares were higher at midday on Friday, lifted by strength in energy stocks as a pledge by world leaders to keep economic support in place settled investor nerves and lifted commodity prices.
By 1048 GMT, the FTSE 100 <.FTSE> was 0.4 percent, or 21.8 points higher at 5,101.07, gaining traction after finishing below 5,100 for the first time in a week on Thursday.
Oil and gas firms were the biggest gainers, as crude prices
Leaders of the Group of 20 major industrialised and developing countries pledged to keep emergency economic supports running until a durable recovery was secured, and work together when the time comes to remove them. [ID:nN25480100]
This helped remove anxiety that a removal of government stimulus would snuff out the nascent recovery which has helped lift the FTSE 100 48 percent since a six-year trough in March.
"There is a pledge to keep the stimulus in place until we really see signs of recovery. That does help the market as all markets have been slightly rattled of late by the noises that the U.S. Fed have been making," said David Morrison, market strategist at GFT Global.
Weakness in the dollar is helping drive risk appetite for equities, while investors also look to a positive open on Wall Street for direction, he said.
"To see the market above the 5,100 level is broadly bullish but we need to see it close above that for traders to think about it as being significant," he said.
Drugmakers were boosted by a 0.7 percent gain in
GlaxoSmithKline
AstraZeneca
Miners were broadly higher, lifted by higher metals prices which benefited as the dollar weakened on the G20 comments.
Anglo American
On the downside, Eurasian Natural Resources
Oil services firm in Petrofac
BANKS MIXED
Lloyds Banking Group
"There's a lot of noise on rights issues to come ... and we're in a logical phase of consolidation after the very material gains since March," said Jonathan Lawlor head of European research at Fox-Pitt, Kelton.
Barclays
Defensive tobacco firms were also lower as appetite for
riskier assets rose. British American Tobacco
U.S. futures
August durable good orders were due at 1230 GMT, the final September reading for the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index will be in focus at 1355 GMT and August new home sales will be eyed shortly after. (Editing by Dan Lalor)