(Adds portfolio manager comment, updates prices, details)
* TSX ends up 246.43 points, or 1.91 percent, at 13,166.00
* Nine of the TSX's 10 main groups rise; energy falls
By Alastair Sharp
TORONTO, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index jumped
for a second day on Wednesday, with banks climbing after the
U.S. Federal Reserve hiked interest rates and mining stocks were
boosted as gold held on to gains given the Fed pointed to a slow
pace of further hikes.
The energy group weighed, however, as a sharp jump in U.S.
inventories and the Fed hike's implications for a stronger U.S.
currency weighed on crude prices. O/R
The materials group - which includes gold and base metal
miners, fertilizer stocks and others - climbed 3.9 percent while
financials added 1.5 percent.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc (N:VRX) VRX.TO added to
its surge on Tuesday, jumping another 9.2 percent to C$163.57
after projecting 30 percent profit growth in 2016.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index
.GSPTSE settled up 246.43 points, or 1.91 percent, at
13,166.00, with nine of the index's 10 main groups in positive
territory.
The energy group fell 0.6 percent, with Canadian Natural
Resources CNQ.TO down 2.3 percent to C$28.99 and Encana Corp
ECA.TO losing 3.4 percent to C$7.31.
"If investors want to still play in Canada, you stay away
from commodities, stay away from industrial mining, just focus
on technology, consumers and gold," said Marcus Xu, portfolio
manager at M.Y. Capital Management Corp in Vancouver.
Xu said an array of dangers included a stretched housing
market threatening further weakness in Canadian equities, which
on Monday hit their lowest since August 2013.
"The Canadian economy is behaving like an emerging market
now," he said. "As rates start going higher in the U.S. and on
the other side with the lower energy price, you going to see a
flight of capital out of Canada go to higher return countries,
namely the U.S.," he said.
Some of the country's biggest banks extended gains after the
Fed move, with Royal Bank of Canada RY.TO ending 1.9 percent
higher at C$75.05 and Toronto-Dominion Bank TD.TO up 2 percent
at C$54.99.
Canadian Pacific Railway CP.TO rose 3.2 percent to
C$177.08 after it sweetened its bid for Norfolk Southern Corp (N:NSC)
NSC.N and slammed the company's leadership for misleading
investors.
Gold miner Barrick Gold Corp ABX.TO added 7.8 percent to
C$10.53 and rival Goldcorp Inc G.TO advanced 7.3 percent to
C$16.34, as gold held steady. GOL/