(Updates prices)
* TSX down 26.73 points, or 0.2 percent, to 13,534.36
* Eight of the TSX's 10 main groups were lower
TORONTO, March 22 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index fell
on Tuesday, led by losses for financial stocks as deadly blasts
in Brussels prompted a flight towards safe-haven assets such as
gold, helping boost shares of gold miners.
Travel-related stocks fell, with Air Canada AC.TO down 1.9
percent at C$8.99 and Westjet Airlines Ltd WJA.TO off 2.9
percent at C$19.45. Canadian National Railway CNR.TO fell 1
percent to C$80.69. Industrials fell 0.8 percent.
Thirty-four people were killed in attacks on Brussels
airport and a rush-hour metro train in the Belgian capital on
Tuesday, according to public broadcaster VRT, triggering
security alerts across Europe and bringing some cross-border
traffic to a halt.
The most influential weights on the Canadian index also
included some of the biggest banks, with Royal Bank of Canada
RY.TO falling 0.7 percent to C$74.82 and Bank of Nova Scotia
off 0.5 percent at C$63.33.
The financials group slipped 0.6 percent.
At 10:14 a.m. EDT (1414 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's
S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE fell 26.73 points, or 0.2
percent, to 13,534.36.
Eight of the index's 10 main groups were in negative
territory.
Investors are awaiting the new Liberal government's first
federal budget, which is due at 4 p.m. EDT. The government is
expected to run a C$29 billion deficit in fiscal 2016-17, a
Reuters poll last week showed, as it borrows more to increase
infrastructure spending in the hopes of boosting growth.
Gold rallied more than 1 percent after the Brussels attacks,
helping boost the index's materials group, which includes
precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, up 0.4
percent.
Barrick Gold Corp ABX.TO advanced 1.7 percent to C$19.53
and Yamana Gold Inc YRI.TO gained 2.9 percent to C$4.22.
The energy group was barely lower, in line with a slip in
oil prices. O/R
Veresen Inc VSN.TO advanced 9.7 percent to C$9.49 after
the energy company said it would pay a dividend.