CANADA STOCKS-TSX retreats on oil prices, profit-taking

By Jennifer Kwan TORONTO, Nov 10 (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 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. 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 closed 3.65 points, or 0.53 percent, lower at 678.74. ($1=$1.05 Canadian) (Reporting by Jennifer Kwan; editing by Peter Galloway) ============================================================== FOR CANADIAN MARKETS NEWS, CLICK ON CODES IN BRACKETS: TSX market report........................................ Canadian dollar and bonds report................... Top News: Canada .................................... Today in Canada..................................... Canadian company news ................................ Reuters global stocks poll (Canada)... FOR CANADIAN MARKETS DATA, CLICK ON CODES IN BRACKETS: Canadian Equities speed guide...................... S&P/TSX Composite index ............................. S&P/TSE Venture composite index ..................... TSX most active.......................................

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