* Banks weak on fundraising uncertainties
* Oils, miners up as commodity prices stabilise
* Friends Provident up on takeover deal
* International Power boosted by results
By David Brett
LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index slipped 0.1 percent by mid-session on Tuesday as weakness in banks offset gains in energy majors and miners, while insurer Friends Provident rose after agreeing a takeover offer.
By 1010 GMT, the FTSE 100 was down 4.63 points to 4,717.57, easing back after hitting a 10-month closing high of 4,731.56 on Friday.
"With little doubt, the big story of the day so far has been Friends Provident's acceptance of the revised bid offer by Resolution, adding further weight to the arguments that a return to normality for financial markets remains on the cards," said Philip Gillet, sales trader at IG Index.
Friends Provident was 1.9 percent higher, after Resolution announced a 1.86 billion pound takeover that valued the life insurer at a 6 percent premium to Monday's closing price.
Resolution lost 2.8 percent after the announcement.
Other life insurers shed Monday's gains as the rest of the sector saw profit takers move in. Old Mutual dropped 3 percent, Aviva was 2.4 percent lower and Prudential lost 1.7 percent.
Banks were the biggest drag on blue chips, with Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC falling between 0.8 and 6.1 percent.
"The financial sector in general is struggling, with Lloyds sitting around 5 percent lower as the spectre of a 15 billion rights issue continues to weigh," said Gillet.
The government is close to hammering out an agreement about how to insure loans granted to Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group under its 580 billion pound asset protection scheme, the Guardian newspaper reported.
InterContinental Hotels fell 1 percent as the world's biggest hotelier moved to cut costs further as it warned of tough trading through the rest of 2009 and reported a 38 percent drop in first-half profit.
TUI Travel fell 0.7 percent ahead of its third-quarter results on Wednesday. Its German owner TUI AG said it was preparing to give its former container shipping unit Hapag-Lloyd a further 420 million euros, people familiar with the situation told Reuters.
COMMODITIES FIRM
Oil majors were the biggest gainers on the index, with BP, Cairn Energy, Royal Dutch Shell and Tullow Oil up 0.6-1.7 percent as crude prices hovered around $71 a barrel.
Mining companies were up as metals prices remained in positive territory. Anglo American, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Vedanta Resources and Xstrata added between 0.2 and 1 percent.
Power generation firm International Power was the top riser, up 6.5 percent, after it reported a 12 percent rise in profits as currency translation effects helped to offset challenging U.S. and British markets.
Other individual risers included Smith & Nephew, which added 1.5 percent, after Morgan Stanley raised the medical device maker to "equal-weight" from "underweight" and upped its price target to 504 pence from 463 pence.
Diageo, the world's biggest spirits firm, gained 1.4 percent on the back of Deutsche Bank upgrading the stock to "buy" from "hold".
On the economic front, the decline in British house prices softened further, according to government data, which showed a 10.7 percent decline on the year in June, after a 12.7 percent annual decline the month before.
The numbers followed news overnight from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors which said there is growing evidence that market conditions in England and Wales are stabilising after the financial crisis and recession.
British retail sales rose last month compared with a weak July last year, a survey showed on Tuesday, after changeable weather helped seasonal clothing lines, food and homeware sales.
Analysts said the market will take its direction this week from UK economic data and the U.S. Federal Reserve two-day interest rate-setting meeting, which concludes on Wednesday. (Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)