(Adds portfolio manager comment, updates prices to close)
* TSX ends down 67.60 points, or 0.50 percent, at 13,493.49
* Seven of the TSX's 10 main groups fall
By Alastair Sharp
TORONTO, March 22 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index
ended lower on Tuesday, with losses for financial, industrial
and materials stocks partially offset by gains for energy
companies and utilities.
The index recovered some losses in afternoon trade after
deadly blasts in Brussels had prompted a flight to safe-haven
assets.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index
.GSPTSE settled down 67.60 points, or 0.50 percent, at
13,493.49. Seven of its 10 main sectors retreated.
Travel-related stocks fell, with Air Canada AC.TO down 2.3
percent at C$8.95 and Westjet Airlines Ltd WJA.TO lost 2.6
percent at C$19.50. Canadian National Railway CNR.TO fell 2.4
percent to C$79.56. Industrials fell 1.4 percent.
Rick Hutcheon, president and chief operating officer at RKH
Investments, said the index has likely turned a corner from a
January trough but that investors can expect choppy moves higher
from here.
"You're going to see a hopscotch market, I don't think the
whole market's going to go all at once," he said. "It's going to
be very rotational."
"The oil sector is probably a good place to be right now for
a long-term bet," he added. "If you have the long-term horizon,
it's probably time to start tip-toeing back into the
high-quality names."
Canadian Natural Resources CNQ.TO gained 1.2 percent to
C$36.03 and TransCanada Corp TRP.TO rose 1.4 percent to
C$49.13, even as oil settled little changed. The overall energy
sector was slightly lower. O/R
Veresen Inc VSN.TO advanced 7.2 percent to C$9.27 after
the energy company said it would pay a dividend.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for suicide bomb
attacks on Brussels airport and a rush-hour metro train in the
Belgian capital on Tuesday which killed at least 30 people, with
police hunting a suspect who fled the air terminal.
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$74.79 and Toronto-Dominion Bank
TD.TO off 0.6 percent at C$55.35.
The financials group slipped 0.6 percent.
Investors had been waiting on a federal budget released
after the close that showed Canada's new Liberal government
would run a deficit nearly three times larger than promised
during last year's election, with no target date for returning
to a balanced budget.