Footsie gains hindered by oil weakness

Oil sector weakness held the FTSE 100 back from making decent gains but the index still managed to rise 58.3 points to 5129.5. There were 79 gainers amongst the FTSE 100 against just 18 losers but gains and losses were modest. Index heavyweight BP fell after the price of crude hit a 27 month low. Prudential spearheaded FTSE 100 gains after pleasing the city with the latest details of its cost cutting initiative, which it hopes will save £175 a year by 2004. The group is selling its general insurance division for £353m to Credit Suisse and is cutting a further 2100 jobs by the end of 2...