(Updates prices)
* TSX down 183.36 points, or 1.44 percent, to 12,580.08
* Eight of the TSX's 10 main groups are lower
TORONTO, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index
tumbled to a one-week low on Wednesday as lower oil prices
weighed on the resource-linked market, and weaker-than-expected
bank earnings dragged down financial stocks.
The most influential movers on the index were bank stocks
after Royal Bank of Canada RY.TO posted quarterly earnings
which fell short of analyst forecasts.
RBC , Canada's second-largest lender by assets, was hurt by
weakness in its insurance and capital markets businesses, while
it also showed increasing signs of pain from the oil price crash
and economic slowdown in Western Canada.
Its stock fell 5.5 percent to C$65.80, and Toronto-Dominion
Bank TD.TO declined 3.8 percent to C$50.20. The overall
financials group fell 3.2 percent.
The energy group fell 0.8 percent as crude oil prices fell
after Saudi Arabia ruled out production cuts and an industry
report underlined the supply glut. O/R
U.S. crude CLc1 prices were down 2.1 percent to $31.21 a
barrel.
Natural Resources Ltd CNQ.TO fell 2.7 percent to C$26.81,
while Suncor Energy Inc SU.TO was down 0.7 percent at C$32.51.
In contrast, the shares of energy producer Encana Corp
ECA.TO ECA.N surged 20 percent to C$4.98 after the company
cut its 2016 capital spending forecast to less than half its
2015 expenditure and said it would lay off 20 percent of its
workforce this year.
Industrials fell 1.6 percent, including a 1.9 percent slide
in the shares of Canadian National Railway Co CNR.TO to
C$77.05.
At 10:41 a.m. EST (1541 GMT), the Toronto Stock Exchange's
S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE fell 183.36 points, or 1.44
percent, to 12,580.08. It hit its lowest since Feb. 16 at
12,506.05.
Eight of the index's 10 main groups were lower.
Gold stocks helped cushion losses for the index, helped by a
1.5 percent rise in spot gold XAU= as risk-averse investors
sought refuge.
Barrick Gold Corp ABX.TO jumped 5.1 percent to C$19.58 and
Goldcorp Inc G.TO rose 5.9 percent to C$22.51.
The materials group, which includes precious and base metals
miners and fertilizer companies, added 2.5 percent.