UK's FTSE rises back near record highs as miners and banks advance

* FTSE 100 rises back near record highs

* Ct Suisse says Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) is its 2nd favourite European IB stock

* Aberdeen Asset Management (Other OTC: ABDNF - news) impacted by broker downgrade

By Sudip Kar-Gupta

LONDON, April 14 (Reuters) - Britain's top equity index rose back within reach of record highs on Tuesday as steady metals prices helped mining stocks rebound while Barclays rose after Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS - news) said it was one of its preferred European banking issues.

Traders added that new signs of takeover activity, with Nokia planning to buy telecoms peer Alcatel (Paris: FR0000130007 - news) -Lucent just a week after Royal Dutch Shell (Xetra: R6C1.DE - news) 's bid for energy rival BG, were also propping up stock markets.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was up by 0.2 percent at 7,077.12 points in early session trading, close to a record high of 7,095.36 points reached on April 10.

British bank Barclays rose 1.7 percent, making it the best-performer on the FTSE 100, helping rival Royal Bank of Scotland to rise 1.4 percent as well.

Traders said Barclays had benefited from a broker note from Credit Suisse. Credit Suisse said Barclays was its second-favourite European investment banking stock behind UBS , although it remained cautious on the sector's overall prospects due to tougher regulation and litigation issues.

Miners such as Rio Tinto (Xetra: 855018 - news) and BHP Billiton (NYSE: BBL - news) also rose as the price of copper bounced up off its earlier lows.

However, Aberdeen Asset Management fell 2 percent after investment bank RBC (Other OTC: RBCI - news) cut its rating on the stock to "underperform" from "sector perform".

Admiral Markets' Darren Sinden said those investing in the FTSE 100 had taken heart from the pick-up in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity, and from the fact that the FTSE had managed to stay above the 7,000 points level.

"We've managed to hold above 7,000 points, and signs of M&A are always welcome in the market," said Sinden.

Uncertainty before next month's British election has weakened sterling, but the FTSE 100 has continued to push higher.

Traders have said that a weak pound could help the exports of the FTSE's international companies, and the FTSE remains up 8 percent since the start of 2015. (Editing by Hugh Lawson)