(Updates prices)
* TSX down 73.89 points, or 0.56 percent, to 13,092.19
* Half of the TSX's 10 main groups fall
TORONTO, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index
slipped on Thursday as telecom stocks weighed after Shaw
Communications Inc SJRb.TO said it planned to jump into
wireless with a C$1.6 billion bid for recent entrant Wind
Mobile.
Shaw fell 8.3 percent to C$24.74 as investors fretted about
how it would finance the deal, while its main rival in Western
Canada, Telus Corp T.TO , lost 7 percent to C$37.79 on an
expectation of intensified wireless competition.
Telecom companies with national wireless networks and
landline assets focused more in the east of the country also
slipped but less drastically, with Rogers Communications Inc
RCIb.TO off 3.7 percent at C$48.40 and BCE Inc BCE.TO down 1.9
percent to C$53.81.
At 10:21 a.m. EST (1521 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's
S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE was down 73.89 points, or 0.56
percent, to 13,092.19.
The materials group also weighed, down 2.4 percent as prices
for gold and a string of base metals fell on a stronger U.S.
dollar after the U.S. Federal Reserve hiked rates for the first
time in almost a decade. GOL/ MET/L
Barrick Gold Corp ABX.TO fell 5.2 percent to C$9.98, and
Goldcorp declined 4.8 percent to C$15.56, while diversified
miner Teck Resources Ltd TCKb.TO lost 3.9 percent to C$4.46.
Gold futures GCc1 fell 2.6 percent to $1,050.5 an ounce,
while copper CMCU3 declined 1.6 percent to $4,537 a tonne.
Half of the index's 10 main groups were in negative
territory, as were roughly half of the stocks overall.
Energy stocks slipped 0.6 percent as oil prices rose
slightly but remained near an 11-year low, pressured by a
relentless buildup in oversupply. O/R