Britain's top shares registered a 0.3 percent growth in midsession on Friday, backed by the strength in banking issues and a recovery by miners, as metal prices rallied assisted by a weaker dollar.

By 1212 GMT the FTSE 100 .FTSE index was 17.23 points higher at 5,634.49, having closed 23.31 points, or 0.4 percent lower on Thursday.

Miners reported to witness earlier losses to extend the blue chip index a boost as gold grew higher and copper prices steadied following the recent falls following data that had regrown concerns about monetary tightening in China.

"It looks to be mainly a massive search for yield at the moment, and it just seems that liquidity has to go somewhere and at the moment it is still finding its way in to stocks," said David Morrison, market strategist at GFT Global.

Among the best off, Eurasian Natural Resources, Vedanta Resources, Antofagasta, Rio Tinto and Anglo American reportedly added 0.1 to 3.0 percent.

Also, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays and Standard Chartered grew by 0.6 and 5.1 percent.