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News from Reuters

TSX retreats on oil prices, profit-taking

10/11/09

By Jennifer Kwan

TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto's main stock index fell for the first time in six sessions on Tuesday as investors cashed in recent profits and weaker oil prices pressured EnCana Corp , Canadian Natural Resources and other energy companies.

EnCana led all decliners, falling 2 percent to C$61.50 while Canadian Natural Resources was off 1.8 percent at C$70.82 as the price of oil fell to around $79 a barrel.

Key decliners also included financial names such as Manulife Financial , down 1.6 percent at C$20.71, and Toronto-Dominion Bank , which fell 0.66 percent to C$66.15.

"New York is flat so it's not doing very much; the financials here are a little bit weaker but they were firmer yesterday. Gold is pausing because they had a big run. Oil is down a little bit," said John Kinsey, portfolio manager at Caldwell Securities Ltd.

"You can call it what you want, if you want to call it profit-taking. It's just a pause."

The S&P/TSX composite index <.GSPTSE> ended down 60.14 points, or 0.52 percent, at 11,426.74, with eight of its 10 main groups lower.

"We've seen fairly material profit-taking. Coming into November now most long-only funds and hedge funds have fought back a lot of the gains they gave up in 2009 so we've seen a desire to book the gains, take some risk off," said Rick Meslin, head of Canadian equities at UBS.

U.S. stocks were also mixed as investors assessed recent gains. <.N>

The market was also digesting comments by U.S. Federal Reserve officials, who struck a cautious note on the U.S. economy on Tuesday, citing high unemployment, heavy reliance on government support and commercial real estate woes as hurdles to recovery.

Cossette Inc , Canada's largest home-grown advertising agency, rose 33 percent to C$7.78. It said it will sell itself to private equity firm Mill Road Capital, spurning a bid from Cosmos Capital.

The blue chip S&P/TSX 60 index <.TSE60> closed 3.65 points, or 0.53 percent, lower at 678.74.

($1=$1.05 Canadian)

(Reporting by Jennifer Kwan; editing by Peter Galloway)

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