Banks, miners pare gains; SABMiller shares advance after upgrade LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European shares declined for the first time in four sessions on Friday, with losses for banks and miners helping to pull stocks back from annual highs. The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index (ST:SXXP 244.79, -1.31, -0.53%) declined 0.6% to 244.65 after advancing 0.5% on Thursday to hit a level not seen since Oct. 3 and building on steep gains made since March. Regional equity markets were mixed with the French CAC-40 index (FR:PX1 3,825, -10.02, -0.26%) down 0.1% to 3,830.24, the German DAX index (DX:DAX 5,720, -11.34, -0.20%) flat at 5,731.24 and the U.K. FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 5,156, -8.06, -0.16%) up 0.1% to 5,169.66. Asian shares were also mixed while U.S. stock futures were lower, with Dow Jones Industrial Average futures down 23 points. See Asia Markets. "The "shift to risk" has been the outstanding theme in financial markets this year. The key call for investors has been to back risk assets over risk-free," said portfolio strategists at Citigroup. The Citigroup strategists believe that European and U.K. equities are still attractive compared to other asset classes "given record low cash rates, near-historic low government bond yields and policy makers' clear commitment to ongoing policy support." Banks have been a main driver behind the stock move in Europe, with the sector up 56.4% year-to-date. Paring some of those gains on Friday were lenders such as Lloyds Banking Group (UK:LLOY 109.13, -0.53, -0.48%) (LYG 7.19, -0.18, -2.44%) , down 1.4%. The bank said Friday that it is discussing possible changes to the terms of its participation in the government's asset protection scheme. The statement came after media reports that the FSA had rejected Lloyds' application to completely exit the asset protection scheme on the grounds that it would not be able to raise enough capital. UBS (CH:UBSN 18.97, -0.22, -1.15%) shares declined 1.2%. The Swiss stock exchange said that it is investigating UBS over possible breaches of disclosure rules. Other banks under pressure included BNP Paribas (FR:BNP 56.51, -0.63, -1.10%) , down 1.1% and Deutsche Bank (DE:DBK 52.25, -0.35, -0.67%) , down 1.1%. Miners, which have also rallied sharply since March, were also lower, with Anglo American (UK:AAL 2,073, -52.50, -2.47%) down 1.4%. Gainers on Friday in Europe included brewer SABMiller (UK:SAB 1,552, +26.00, +1.70%) , up 1.6% in London. The firm was upgraded to buy from neutral at UBS, which said the turning point for the company's volume recovery is approaching. The investment bank said it expects emerging markets to recover faster than mature markets, putting SAB in the best position to benefit from this trend. Drugmakers were also firm, with GlaxoSmithKline (UK:GSK 1,200, +22.50, +1.91%) (GSK 38.86, -0.07, -0.18%) shares up 1.1% and Roche (CH:ROG 168.10, +2.00, +1.20%) (RHHB.Y 40.22, -0.29, -0.72%) shares up 1%.

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