Threat of Iraqi war lifts oil price and FTSE

Climbing oil prices and positive corporate news has helped to lift the FTSE 100 this morning, led by publishing house Reed Elsevier Group. The FTSE 100 climbed 16.1 points or 0.4% to 4064.7 within the first hour of trading, as Reed Elsevier, publisher of school textbooks, declared it would reach its full-year target by cutting costs and subsequently added 15p or 2.8% to 550p. Amec, the engineering design company, slid 41p or 23% to 141p. The world's third-biggest engineering-design company said pretax profit in 2002 will be lower than expected as companies defer projects. BP ...