CANADA STOCKS-TSX falls as miners pull back after recent rally

BY Reuters | ECONOMIC | 10:59 AM EST

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TSX down 0.6%

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Miners offset gains in energy shares

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Cogeco down after La Caisse to sell stake

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Metro down after Q1 results

(Updates throughout, adds details and analyst comments)

Jan 27 (Reuters) -

Canada's main stock index slipped on Tuesday, dragged by mining shares as investors ?took profits after strong gains, while they awaited interest rate decisions from the U.S. Federal Reserve and ?the Bank of Canada later this week.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index was ?down 0.63% at 32,886.36 points as of 10:28 a.m. ?ET. The gold-focused ?index led losses with a 3.3% fall as investors rushed to book profits after three straight ?days of gains on the back ?of skyrocketing precious metal prices.

The broader materials index, which houses miners, lost 2.6% - on pace for its worst day in nearly ?a month.

An index of consumer ?staples fell ?1.7%, with Metro dipping 5.3% after the supermarket operator's

first-quarter profit

marginally missed analysts' estimates.

But the energy index rose 0.3% as crude prices advanced after ?a winter storm disrupted Gulf Coast crude production and refineries.

Looking ahead, the Bank of Canada is set for its interest-rate decision on Wednesday. Economists polled by Reuters expect the central bank to keep policy rate unchanged at 2.25%.

The Fed is also widely expected to keep the rates ?unchanged on ?Wednesday.

Big Tech earnings are also on the way, with Microsoft and Meta set to report quarterly results later this week.

"Over the ?next couple of days, we're going to find out a lot about AI spend," said Allan Small, senior investment advisor, Allan Small Financial Group at iA Private Wealth.

"If we find out that the AI spend is slowing down, that could be a bad thing for the stock market."

The information technology sector gained ?1%, with electronics manufacturing services company Celestica (CLS) rising 7.9%.

Among other stocks, Cogeco Communications (CGEAF) fell 6.4% after investment fund La Caisse said on Monday it will sell a part of its stake in ?the telecom firm.

(Reporting by Utkarsh Tushar Hathi in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)

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