Talk of a Middle East peace deal saw oil prices dip (Jeff Moore/PA) (PA Archive)The FTSE 100 made steady progress on Tuesday as oil prices fell amid renewed talk of a peace deal in the Middle East. The FTSE 250 ended up 234.53 points, 1.0%, at 24,459.30, while the AIM All-Share closed up 5.75 points, 0.8%, at 774.36. In response, Brent oil for October delivery traded lower at 80.60 dollars a barrel on Tuesday afternoon, from 83.92 dollars late on Monday. BP also unveiled better-than-expected second quarter results with underlying replacement profit before interest and tax soaring to 10.31 billion dollars in the quarter ending on June 30 from 5.25 billion dollars the year prior, ahead of the company-compiled consensus of 9.48 billion dollars. On Tuesday, the oil major said it was looking to offload Archaea, its US biogas business, which it bought in 2022 for 3.3 billion dollars.