(Adds portfolio manager quotes, details on banks, energy stocks
and wildfire, updates prices)
* TSX closes up 102.26 points, or 0.74 percent, at 13,919.58
* All of the index's 10 main groups end higher
* Index rose 1.2 percent for the week
By Fergal Smith
TORONTO, May 20 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index rose
on Friday as financials and energy led broad-based gains, helped
by a global rally in stocks as the negative impact of Federal
Reserve rate hike speculation faded.
The index rose 1.2 percent for the week, while it has
rebounded more than 20 percent from an almost 3-1/2-year low in
January. Still it has yet to climb back above the 14,000
threshold.
A relief rally globally gave Canada's market a lift after
stocks were pressured by hawkish Fed minutes earlier this week,
said Matt Skipp, president of SW8 Asset Management.
Wall Street also closed higher, while major indices in
Europe and Asia climbed. .N
Shares of Manulife Financial Corp MFC.TO rose 2.1 percent
to C$18.79, while the country's major banks also advanced. The
overall financials group ended 0.6 percent higher.
Canada's biggest banks are expected to set aside more funds
to cover bad loans to the oil and gas sector, eating into their
profits when they announce second quarter results next week,
analysts say.
Energy stocks rose 0.5 percent even though U.S. crude CLc1
prices settled down 41 cents at $47.75 a barrel.
The market perceives that wildfire-related difficulties
faced by oil sands producers in Alberta are transitory, said
Skipp.
The wildfire has moved from oil-rich Alberta into
Saskatchewan, but that province's fertile farms and lucrative
mines are tucked far away from the blaze's path. operator Enbridge Inc ENB.TO rose 1.5 percent to
C$52.86, while Canadian Natural Resources Ltd CNQ.TO was up
1.3 percent at C$37.92.
Industrial stocks rose 0.8 percent, including gains for
railway stocks, while the materials group, which includes
precious and base metals miners and fertilizer companies, gained
0.4 percent.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index
.GSPTSE closed up 102.26 points, or 0.74 percent, at
13,919.58. All of the index's 10 main groups ended higher.
However, Skipp is skeptical that the rally can be sustained.
"A big part of the rise in Canadian equities this year is a
result of a dovish Fed and a weaker U.S. dollar," he said. "I'm
not convinced that the U.S. dollar is in a downtrend ... and I'm
not convinced that the global economy is actually strong enough
to support our very resource-focused stock market."
Domestic economic data was mixed. Weaker-than-expected
retail sales data underscored expectations that Canada's economy
slowed heading into the second quarter, but core inflation rose
to 2.2 percent.