On the mid-cap index, Talvivaara Mining shot to the top of the leader board after Finnish regulators said they were satisfied with its safety procedures. The company said its metals plant would be restarted following some maintenance.
According to Reuters, the regulators last week asked Talvivaara to explain safety issues following a death of a worker outside the plant in eastern Finland, and ordered the company to keep the plant shut. It is thought the worker died as a result of high levels of hydrogen sulphide.
The shares jumped 4% to 232p.
Otherwise mid-cap stocks were driven largely by broker comment. Bus and coach operator National Express rose 4% to 237.6p after Morgan Stanley raised it to 'overweight' with a target price of 290p. The analysts expect National Express to grow its business in Spain, as the Spanish grow increasingly concerned about costs and switch to travelling by bus and coach. They say this trend will be helped along by cuts to rail subsidies this year. They also expect cost savings in the Spanish business "thanks to labour reforms" in the country.
Morgan Stanley analysts also upped their price target for shares in online betting company Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment from 270p to 280p. Lead analyst Vaughan Lewis said:
We expect 80% of bwin.party's revenues to come from regulated markets by 2014, and think the shares are materially mispriced and would buy.
Among other things, he pointed out the company's potential in the US market:
Legal online gaming is nearing reality in the US and yet is not included in our or market forecasts. We see this as a free option worth up to £8 per share.
The shares jumped 4% to 162p.
