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British shares advance but BP posts losses

FTSE 100 index up 0.5%; Resolution to buy Axa U.K. assets

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- British shares advanced on Monday, with gains for miners outweighing more losses for oil giant BP as it continues to battle to stem the massive oil spill polluting the Gulf of Mexico.

The U.K. FTSE 100 index /quotes/comstock/23i!i:ukx (UK:UKX 5,200, +36.18, +0.70%) rose 0.5% to 5,187.65. Other European shares were higher and U.S. stock futures were pointing to a stronger start on Wall Street. Read story on Europe Markets.

Miners advanced along with metals futures in London, with shares of Anglo American /quotes/comstock/23s!e:aal (UK:AAL 2,649, +72.00, +2.79%) up 2.1% and shares of Fresnillo /quotes/comstock/23s!e:fres (UK:FRES 1,046, +37.00, +3.67%) up 3.5%.

Elsewhere in the commodity sector, shares of oil giant BP /quotes/comstock/23s!a:bp. (UK:BP. 375.90, -16.00, -4.08%) /quotes/comstock/13*!bp/quotes/nls/bp (BP 33.97, +1.19, +3.63%) declined 2.3%, bringing month-to-date losses to 22.6%.

Board members of the firm were due Monday to determine their strategy on dividend payments as the company said that the cost of cleaning up the still-uncapped Gulf of Mexico oil spill has reached $1.6 billion. Read more on BP.

Insurance companies were higher, with Prudential /quotes/comstock/23s!a:pru (UK:PRU 545.50, +10.50, +1.96%) /quotes/comstock/13*!puk/quotes/nls/puk (PUK 15.73, -0.47, -2.90%) up 1.4%, Aviva /quotes/comstock/23s!a:av. (UK:AV. 341.20, +4.40, +1.31%) up 1% and Legal & General /quotes/comstock/23s!a:lgen (UK:LGEN 82.35, +1.30, +1.60%) up 1.5%.

Resolution /quotes/comstock/23s!e:rsl (UK:RSL 60.30, 0.00, 0.00%) , which trades outside the top index, was suspended at 60 pence.

The life insurance group said that it's in talks to buy some of the U.K. operations of French insurance giant AXA /quotes/comstock/24s!e:cs (FR:CS 13.61, +0.48, +3.66%) in a 2.75 billion pound ($4 billion) deal.

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Resolution, which was created by Clive Cowdery to buy up assets in a fragmented U.K. market, said it wants the insurance, annuities and pensions operations of AXA. Read more on Resolution.

Staying with deal news for firms trading outside the top index, shares of Weir Group /quotes/comstock/23s!e:weir (UK:WEIR 1,043, +92.50, +9.73%) jumped 9.5%.

It said that it will buy the Linatex group of companies for $172.5 million in cash. Linatex is the Kuala Lumpur provider of wear-resistant products to the global mining industry.

Weir also said that trading for the nine weeks to June 4 has been stronger than expected, with 22-week order input up 25%, and it now expects first-half adjusted pretax profit of around 140 million pounds. Second-half pretax profit will be significantly ahead of the year-ago period, the firm added.