Miners and banks lead FTSE 100 higher The benchmark index crept up 10 points, advancing for the fourth consecutive day and led higher by mining and banking stocks. Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation was the best-performing blue-chip share with a gain of 2.5pc, boosted by an upgrade to "outperform" from "neutral" at Credit Suisse. "We think downside risks are now limited with potential re-rating catalysts in 2013," analysts at the broker said. Importantly, the company's acquisition run has finally ended and could kick into reverse with small divestments in 2013/14 in our view. Analysts at the bank cut their rating on Sage to "underweight," arguing the software company faces stiff competition from smaller cloud computing-based competitors and is hindered by the fact that nearly 30pc of its sales come from France and Spain, which have a tough economic outlook. The downbeat assesment of Sage's prospects knocked the shares 1.6pc, suffering the heaviest fall on the FTSE 100. At the other end of the table, banks were also strong, with Lloyds Banking Group up 2.6pc, Royal Bank of Scotland shares 1.7pc higher and Standard Chartered up 0.3pc. On the mid-cap FTSE 250 - 7 points higher in early deals - Egyptian gold miner Centamin was the biggest riser with a gain of 9pc. The company has faced a series of problems in Egypt, including a court ruling that its right to operate the Sukari mine, its main asset, was invalid. But investor confidence was bolstered last week by comments from the country's petroleum minister, who lent his support to Centamin on Friday and sparked a rally in the shares.