LONDON, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Britain's index of leading shares ended steady on Thursday as higher commodity prices drove mining and oil companies higher, cancelling out losses in the ailing financial sector. The FTSE 100 <.FTSE> closed down 1.6 points at 5,370.2, outperforming major European indexes because of the heavy weighting in commodity stocks. Mining stocks were buoyed by gold prices hitting a one-week high while oil producers were bolstered by crude rallying by over 5 percent to more than $121 per barrel , up from less than $112 a barrel on Tuesday. 'Oil's had an absolute humdinging couple of days, and it seems as though people were premature in saying the oil story is over,' said Jim Wood-Smith, head of research at Williams de Broe in Exeter. 'The stocks that everyone has loved to hate over the last couple...
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