By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. stocks rebounded from a two-week low on Tuesday, as gains for banks and oil firms offset losses from the mining sector.

The FTSE 100 index added 0.2% to close at 6,571.46. On Monday the index had closed at the lowest level since Sept. 9 after worries that German Chancellor Angela Merkel will struggle to form a coalition government weighed on the broader European markets.

Banks, which were among hardest-hit sectors in Monday's selloff, partly recovered on Tuesday, with Barclays PLC (BCS) up 1.9% and Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LYG) rising 0.4%. Lloyds was also lifted to hold from sell by Investec Securities.

Oil firms were also cautiously higher, defying a drop in oil prices. Tullow Oil PLC added 1.5%, BG Group PLC gained 1.7%, and BP PLC (BP) put on 0.5%.

On a more downbeat note, gold and silver miners declined as their respective metals showed some hefty losses. Shares of Randgold Resources Ltd. lost 2.8%, and Fresnillo PLC fell 4.2%.

Base-metals miners were also mostly lower, with shares of Anglo American PLC down 1.8% and BHP Billiton PLC off 0.8%.

Among other notable movers, shares of Carnival PLC (CCL) slid 5.6% after the cruise-ship operator said third-quarter adjusted earnings per share fell to $1.38 compared with $1.53 in the same quarter last year.

AMEC PLC gave up 1.5% after UBS cut the oil-services firm to neutral from buy. The analysts said AMEC faces three major headwinds in the near term: customer slowdown, patchy demand and an increase in competitive rivalry.

Outside the main index, shares of Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC rallied 9.3% after the online financial magazine publisher said revenues for the fourth quarter are expected to rise 9% compared with the same period last year.

Shares of Premier Foods PLC dropped 2.9% after the food producer said Alastair Murray will replace Mark Moran as chief financial officer from Sept. 30.

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