Oil gives FTSE the slip

BP dropped 8p or 1.2% to 638.5p while Shell retreated 32p, or 1.8%, to 1,822p. Cable & Wireless fell after agreeing to pay as much as $1.2bn for Energis to expand its services and add customers. Britain's second-biggest phone company fell 6.75p, or 4.3%, to 156.75p. The company will pay £594m in cash and up to £80m more in shares or cash in three years for Energis, which sells phone and Web services, to gain customers including Tesco and International Business Machines Corp. Meanwhile US stocks appear to have fallen in sympathy with the UK markets, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fallin...