FTSE recovers despite threat impact on oil price

The FTSE 100 index closed up 2.6 points to 4,415.70 today after UK shares regained ground, led by HSBC and Abbey. HSBC rose 28p to 835.5p after the lender announced first-half profit had exceeded expectations. Abbey National, the UK's second-largest mortgage lender, advanced 12p, or 2.1%, to 579p after HBOS said it may try to challenge the £8.2bn offer made by the Spanish bank Santander Central Hispano SA. That said, the impact of terror alerts was fairly hefty on oil prices again, as the September futures oil price hit a record high of $43.92 a barrel earlier in New York and rai...