* Miners, oils up; commodity prices rise on U.S. jobs data
* Prudential gains on Asia deal charm offensive
* AstraZeneca falls after cancer drug misses goal
By David Brett
LONDON, March 5 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index rose 0.2 percent early on Monday as gains by miners, on the back of higher commodity prices, outpaced falls by banks and drugmakers, led by AstraZeneca after a cancer drug failed to meet its goals.
By 0926 GMT, the FTSE 100 was up 8.83 points at 5,608.59, having closed 1.3 percent higher on Friday, after encouraging U.S. job and consumer data reinforced views that the world's largest economy is slowly but steadily recovering.
Miners, strong performers in the recent index rally, again added the most points to the FTSE 100 index as metal prices gained across the board after Friday's U.S. jobs data.
Rio Tinto, Lonmin, Anglo American, and Fresnillo added 0.4 to 1.3 percent.
BHP Billiton gained 1.0 percent after the global miner won a key break from traditional annual benchmark prices by agreeing to sell a major portion of its coking coal to Asian and European customers on term contracts.
"The FTSE is up over 3 percent for the year but that has been covered by the considerable strength in the mining sector, which accounts for around 16 percent of the index by capitalisation," said Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown.
"In terms of actual market moving numbers there is not a great deal to drive the market this week, so in the absence of any real catalysts the market could drift."
Energy stocks also lifted the index higher as crude pushed beyond $82 per barrel. Oil explorer Cairn Energy added 0.6 percent, while BG Group and Royal Dutch Shell rose 0.5 and 0.3 percent, respectively.
Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina have jointly bid more than $3 billion for Australia's Arrow Energy.
Oil and gas services company Petrofac was the top blue chip gainer, up 2.3 percent after it posted full-year net profit ahead of forecasts.
Prudential added 1.8 percent with the insurer this week set to launch a charm offensive in an attempt to calm the nerves of its leading investors about its $35.5 billion agreed bid to buy life insurer AIA in Asia and pay for it with a 21 billion dollar rights issue, The Times said.
Other life insurers also rose. Legal & General, Standard Life, Aviva and Resolution rose 0.8 to 1.7 percent.
WM Morrison, the supermarket chain, gained 0.1 percent ahead of results on Thursday. Peers J Sainsbury and Tesco were up 0.4 and 0.8 percent, respectively.
On the second line, Forth Ports soared over 25 percent higher after Britain's only-listed ports company said late on Friday it had rejected an approach from a trio of shareholders as falling "far short".
DRUGMAKERS WANE
Drugmakers were the main drag on the FTSE 100 index. AstraZeneca fell 1.3 percent after revealing its cancer drug Recentin failed in a head to head late stage trial with Roche's Avastin on colorectal cancer patients.
GlaxoSmithKline and Shire, which also lagged Friday's rally, dropped 1.1 and 0.8 percent, respectively.
Banks were lower weighed by falls in HSBC and Standard Chartered, which shed 1.1 to 0.6 percent respectively.
But Royal Bank of Scotland added 1.8 percent as the Times reported Spanish banking giant Santander has moved into pole position to take over the 320 branches in England being sold by RBS.
WPP, the largest advertising group in the world, was the top faller, down 1.7 percent and shedding some of Friday's gains when it reported its preliminary results.