(Adds portfolio manager quote, details on Brookfield Asset
Management and Valeant, updates prices)
* TSX up 26.03 points, or 0.19 percent, at 13,422.76
* Just three of the TSX's 10 main groups ended higher
By Fergal Smith
TORONTO, April 11 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index rose
on Monday as an almost three-week high for gold helped boost
gold mining stocks, while a major railway company advanced after
it scrapped a takeover bid.
The most influential movers on the index included Barrick
Gold Corp ABX.TO , which rose 6.5 percent to C$21.04 as gold
rallied, and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd CP.TO , which
advanced 2.6 percent to C$179.91.
CP said it had scrapped efforts to buy Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC)
Corp, almost six months after launching an unsolicited $28
billion bid for the fourth-largest U.S. railroad operator.
However, the index was unable to sustain a move above its
200-day moving average as some gains were pared before the start
of U.S. earnings season after the close.
"It seems like some investors are maybe booking some profits
ahead of that (U.S. earnings)," said Youssef Zohny, portfolio
manager at StennerZohny Investment Partners.
"Canadian investors are going to be watching U.S. bank
earnings, it is probably the strongest correlation to Canadian
bank earnings," he added.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index
.GSPTSE closed up 26.03 points, or 0.19 percent, at 13,422.76.
Just three of the index's 10 main groups ended higher.
The materials group, which includes precious and base metals
miners and fertilizer companies, added 3.4 percent despite
losses for major fertilizer producers Potash Corp POT.TO , off
1.4 percent to C$20.49, and Agrium Inc AGU.TO , down 0.4
percent at C$113.57.
Gold futures GCc1 rose 1.1 percent to $1,256.4 an ounce.
GOL/
Industrials rose 0.5 percent.
U.S. crude CLc1 prices settled at $40.36, up 1.6 percent,
helped by a U.S. government forecast that said U.S. shale oil
production is expected to fall in May for a seventh month in a
row. O/R
However, the energy group ended just 0.1 percent higher amid
investor caution ahead of an oil producers meeting in Doha on
Sunday.
The financials group dipped 0.1 percent, with Brookfield
Asset Management Inc BAMa.TO falling 1.6 percent to C$42.49.
The shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (NYSE:VRX)
VRX.TO remained volatile, tumbling 7.8 percent to C$40.43
after briefly trading above $50 last week.