Costa Concordia and Superstorm Sandy hit insurer Catlin The optimism helped the FTSE 100 climb 35.51 points, to 6,263.93, but could not offset falls earlier in the week. The index posted its first weekly loss of the year, down 1.3pc on last week's four-and-a-half-year highs. The FTSE 250 closed up 74.60 points at 13,375.25. Workspace Group was one of the best performers on the mid-cap index, climbing 16.6 to 333.6p after the provider of small business premises said demand for space remained "strong." Its rent roll rose 4.5pc or £1.9m in the financial year to date. South African miner Aquarius Platinum was buoyed by interim results showing it had scaled back production costs with the closure of the Marikana and Everest mines. Despite reporting profits down 24pc to $22m, the shares rose as much as 10pc before closing up 1¾ at 70¼p. Peer Lonmin fell 4.3 to 372.6p as analysts at Credit Suisse downgraded it to "neutral" from "outperform." Packaging company DS Smith fell 3.2 to 229.8p as it said finance director Steve Dryden intended to step down. Back among the blue-chips, Vodafone outperformed, adding 2.05 to 173.9p after a Bank of America Merrill Lynch upgrade to "buy," while Imperial Tobacco fell 47p to £23.00 as Investec cut it to "hold."