Heavyweight oil gains pull Footsie further above 4,000

GAINS in heavyweight oil stocks helped pull the London market further above the 4,000 level yesterday.

By the close of trading the FTSE 100 Index was up 36.3 points at 4044.3 and regaining some of the sharp losses seen on Friday after a wave of bad news from the US hit shares.

Yesterday the mood in London was better, despite a poor start on Wall Street where the Dow Jones Industrial Average and tech-dominated Nasdaq were trading lower by the time London closed.