* FTSE 100 up 0.2 percent in early trade
* Techs, oils lead gainers; miners hit by metals price slide
* Volume thin at start of three-session week
By Simon Jessop
LONDON, April 26 (Reuters) - Britain's leading shares edged higher on Tuesday, led by technology stocks and integrated oils, although trade was thin and is expected to remain so at the start of a second holiday-shortened trading week.
ARM Holdings and Autonomy were among the top gainers, up 2.2 percent and 1.6 percent respectively, buoyed by upbeat broker comment and after bumper results from Autonomy and global peers last week.
Integrated oils was the biggest sector gainer, adding around 8 points to the index, with Royal Dutch Shell up 1.2 percent on a positive note from investment bank UBS, which named it as a top pick on valuation grounds.
BP also rose strongly, up 0.8 percent ahead of its quarterly earnings report, due out on Wednesday.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 was up 0.2 percent at 6,030.80 points at 0908 GMT, with volumes thin after the four-day Easter weekend and ahead of another four-day holiday weekend for the Royal Wedding, starting on Friday.
"A lot of people are still on holiday, so I think volumes will remain quite light," said a London-based sales trader at a European investment bank. Volumes were just 9 percent of their 30-day average after the first hour of trade.
Chris Purdy, trader at Spreadex, added: "UK equities beyond the natural resources sectors look range-bound for the time being though as there is little macroeconomic data of significance and only three days of trading this week."
The market had opened lower, tracking Asian and U.S. market falls, as miners were weighed by a broad-based slide in base and other metals ahead of a two-day U.S. Federal Reserve meeting, and on concerns over monetary policy tightening in China.
Randgold Resources, Kazakhmys and Antofagasta led the blue-chip fallers, down 1.1 percent to 1.7 percent.
The U.S. Fed's quantitative easing programme has fuelled bumper gains for a range of commodities, but, with inflation concerns rising, this week's meeting will be closely watched for hints it could tighten policy quicker than expected.
"China was a bit weaker overnight as well," the London-based sales trader at a European investment bank said. "Given that they're a big buyer of commodities, that's a big potential negative out there."
Chinese stocks ended at a four-week low overnight.
With little fresh UK earnings news out on Tuesday, traders will instead look ahead to the next two sessions, with results due from index heavyweights including Barclays, AstraZeneca and Shire. Of the 17 FTSE 100 companies due to report in the current quarterly earnings season, 18 percent have already done so with 67 percent missing estimates, with an average negative surprise of 1.1 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Those still to report, however, are expected to post an average positive surprise of 0.6 percent, the data showed.
In spite of some negative numbers overnight from Japanese firms including Canon, U.S. firms have so far outperformed. Chris Weston, institutional dealer at IG Markets, said he remained bullish on equities in the medium term.
"Corporate earnings are at record levels in a number of countries, balance sheets are undergeared and the Fed will keep rates low this year and most of 2012," he said.
In the absence of any fresh macroeconomic shocks, he added, "meaningful pullbacks will be used as a buying opportunity for equities traders". (Editing by Erica Billingham)