April 11 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index reversed course to trade higher on Wednesday morning as escalating tensions between the United States and Russia over Syria pushed up gold and crude oil prices.
* Wall Street opened lower due to losses in financial stocks and rising U.S.-Russia tensions over Syria.
* U.S. President Donald Trump warned Russia of imminent military action in Syria over a suspected poison gas attack and blasted Moscow for standing by Syrian President Bashar Assad.
* Trump was responding to a warning from Russia, Assad's main ally, that any U.S. missiles fired at Syria would be shot down and the launch sites targeted. Brent crude jumped to a high of nearly $72 a barrel, boosting the energy sector by 1.3 percent. O/R
* Suncor Energy SU.TO , Canadian Natural Resources CNQ.TO were up nearly a percent and provided the biggest boosts to the sector.
* Shares of Barrick Gold Corp ABX.TO and Goldcorp G.TO rose more than 2 percent and lifted the materials sector.
* Traditional safety play gold rose for a fourth session, with spot gold XAU= advancing 1 percent to $1,352.62.
* At 9:47 a.m. ET (1347 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX Composite Index .GSPTSE was up 24.42 points, or 0.16 percent, to 15,286.56.
* The TSX posted two new 52-week highs and one new low. Across all Canadian issues, there were three new 52-week highs and five new lows.
* The largest percentage gainer on the TSX was Pretium Resources PVG.TO , which rose 17.5 percent, while the largest decliner was Prometic Life Sciences PLI.TO , down 2.4 percent.
* Among the most active Canadian stocks by volume were Aurora Cannabis ACB.TO , Largo Resources LGO.TO and B2Gold Corp BTO.TO .
* Volume on the TSX index was 25.62 million shares, while the total volume on Wednesday was 40.09 million shares.