FTSE at 5-1/2-year high

Britain's FTSE 100 share index hit a 5-1/2 year closing high on Tuesday, buoyed by energy producers pushing higher on positive earnings from oil giant BP but weighed by miners. BP added 1.1 percent after reporting its third-quarter replacement cost net profit rose 58 percent to $6.975 billion due to asset sales.
US crude oil traded close to flat, above $59 a barrel, under pressure from high levels of inventory and doubts about Opec's ability to shore up the market.
"We actually believe that the oil sector will be one of the things holding up the FTSE 100 over the next few months," said Henk Potts, equity strategist at Barclays Investment.
"We believe it is trading at an unjustified discount to the market, and the oil price will average $64 a barrel in the fourth quarter because seasonal demand will kick back in with the Northern hemisphere going back into winter."
The FTSE 100 closed up 16.4 points, 0.27 percent, at 6,182.5, its highest close since February 2001.
"There's been no shortage of volatility for the FTSE through today's session although overall direction has been relatively limited," said Jimmy Yates, trader at CMC Markets.
"In general there's an absence of news around to provide any solid momentum - there's been a degree of redressing some of yesterday's sector specific losses, but with oil prices still under pressure, the energy stocks are still largely on the back foot."
Reckitt Benckiser, the world's biggest maker of household goods, topped the FTSE 100 leaderboard, climbing 5.6 percent after it posted a 10 percent rise in third-quarter net profits and raised its 2006 sales and net profit targets.
Kingfisher further boosted the retail sector, up 1.8 percent after it detailed plans to expand its store space in Russia by as much as 150 percent in the next year, the Times reported.
Marks & Spencer gained 1.3 percent after J.P. Morgan raised its price target. Advertising conglomerate WPP added 2 percent, with analysts citing positive sentiment as Omnicom, the world's largest advertising services company, published upbeat third-quarter results.
Among standout losers, British Energy extended recent losses, dropping 3.5 percent after a downgrade from Societe Generale and after continued setbacks stemming from the recent discovery of boiler cracks at the Hunterston B7 reactor in Scotland and the Hinkley Point B7 unit in England.
Miners were the worst performers in the index, with Kazakhmys down 1.3 percent.