Lonmin ended the day's trading as the biggest riser, as its share price soared by 6 per cent to 1,583p, following positive news from the South African government.

The platinum metals mining group saw share price after the South African government announced a review of mining legislation and the way it grants mining rights.

Earlier this month, the group had suffered by a governmental order to halt sales of non-platinum metals.

The mining group was folllowed by insurers Aviva and Prudential. Aviva, whose general insurance business has been the subject of much speculation, rose by 5.1 per cent to 397.3p as Axa emerged as a rival bidder to RSA Insurance for the business.

Prudential rose 4.9 per cent to 582p after the company and its subsidiaries were taken off CreditWatch by Standard & Poor's following strong financial results earlier this month.

Mining group BHP Billiton was the biggest faller, seeing share price drop by 2.4 per cent to 1,916p, after a bid for Canadian firm Potash was rejected

Cairn Energy ended the day down 1.5 per cent at 486p, following yesterday's surge.

International Power saw share price shrink by 0.8 per cent to 361.9p.