By Fergal Smith
(Reuters) -Canada's main stock index fell to a three-week low on Friday as a drop in metal prices weighed on the materials sector, with the market giving back some of the robust gains accumulated since the U.S. presidential election.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index ended down 136.41 points, or 0.5%, at 25,274.30, its lowest closing level since Nov. 20.
For the week, the TSX was down 1.6%, after posting five straight weekly gains. It notched a record high earlier this month and has gained 4.6% since the beginning of November.
"We have been running a very strong month following the U.S. presidential election and this mean reversion that we're seeing in broad indices is not out of the ordinary," said Sid Mokhtari, chief market technician for CIBC Capital Markets.
"For Canada, I would say we probably are going to stay range bound for a little longer until we go into the inauguration in the U.S. and we see what kind of tariff threats we may get from the U.S. side."
The inauguration of Donald Trump as U.S. president is set to take place on Jan. 20. Trump has vowed to impose a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders.
Canada will respond robustly if the United States imposes unjustified tariffs on Canadian exports, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said.
The materials group, which includes fertilizer companies and metal mining shares, fell 1.7%, extending its losses from the previous day, as gold and copper prices declined.
Energy fell 0.5% and industrials were down 0.7%.
Shares of Enghouse Systems Ltd tumbled 12.9% after the software solutions firm missed fourth-quarter revenue estimates.
Nine of 10 major sectors posted declines. The exception was technology which was aided by a 9.1% gain for electronics firm Celestica Inc.
(Reporting by Fergal Smith and Ragini Mathur; Editing by Vijay Kishore and Alistair Bell)