* FTSE down 0.4 percent
* Miners fall as China raises banks' reserve requirements
* ARM rises as Intel results boost tech sector
By Simon Falush
LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Commodity stocks and banks pulled Britain's FTSE 100 share index lower by the close on Friday, as a move by China to further tighten monetary policy prompted renewed concerns on the sustainability of the global economic recovery.
The FTSE 100 ended down 21.81 points, or 0.4 percent, at 6002.07, having closed 0.4 percent lower on Thursday following Wednesday's 31-month closing high.
China's central bank raised banks' required reserves by another 50 basis points, effective Jan, 20, its seventh increase since early 2010.
This prompted some anxiety that a cooling of Chinese growth may hurt demand for oil and base metal prices, both of which held below recent highs helping push miners and oil majors like BP lower.
London-listed Mexican precious metals miner Fresnillo was the top faller, down 4.2 percent, despite posting record annual output figures, as gold fell over 2 percent. Anglo American lost 3.2 percent.
However China's move was not unexpected and many analysts remain optimistic about the outlook for 2011.
"Investors are booking a bit of profit after an incredible run over the last couple of months, but they would do well to hold on to equities as the majority of companies have beaten expectations and I think this will continue," said Henk Potts, equity strategist at Barclays Wealth.
The FTSE 100 is up 1.7 percent so far in January after rising 6.7 percent in December.
SUPPORTIVE DEFENSIVES
Defensive stocks such as utilities and tobacco firms were in demand with investors rotating out of more cyclical shares.
Utilities International Power and Scottish & Southern Energy added 1.9 and 0.4 percent respectively, while British American Tobacco added 0.3 percent.
British factory gate inflation rose faster than expected in December.
That could concern the Bank of England as consumer price inflation is already more than a percentage point above its 2 percent target and is forecast to rise towards 4 percent in the coming months.
British chip designer ARM, which recently announced a tie-up with Microsoft and has been the subject of persistent M&A talk, rose 5.3 percent following U.S. peer Intel's fourth-quarter results overnight.
However, looking at the charts, the technical indicators suggest a slightly bearish outlook for the FTSE, analysts said.
The immediate trend is down but the momentum is weak," said Nicolas Suiffet, technical analyst at Trading Central.
"The cash index is currently challenging its 20-day simple moving average around 5,960, a push below this support would open a path to the key support base at 5,893 and even the 50-day moving average support around 5,840." ($1=.6312 pounds) (Reporting by Simon Falush; Editing by Greg Mahlich)