Canadian Stocks Gain, Led by Royal Bank of Canada, Manulife

By Whitney Kisling

Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Canadian stocks rose, as banks and insurers led the main index toward its first weekly gain in a month on speculation the government will loosen accounting rules.

Royal Bank of Canada, the country's biggest bank, advanced for a second day after the National Post reported that the Accounting Standards Board, Canada's accounting watchdog, will give banks more flexibility with mark-to-market reporting. Gold mining companies including Goldcorp Inc. declined with the price of the precious metal.

The Standard & Poor's/TSX Composite Index climbed 94.80, or 1 percent, to 9,364.77 at 10:18 a.m. in Toronto, as 170 stocks gained and 66 fell. The index has gained 3.4 percent this week.

Royal Bank added 1.4 percent to C$46.31. Manulife Financial Corp., Canada's biggest insurer by assets, gained 1.3 percent to C$28.17. Bank of Montreal climbed 3.2 to C$42.82.

Goldcorp, the second-largest bullion miner by market value, slid 4.9 percent to C$23.54, while Barrick Gold Corp., the largest gold miner, fell 2.3 percent to C$28.38.

Research in Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, rose 0.8 percent to C$69.55.

To contact the reporter on this story: Whitney Kisling in New York at wkisling@bloomberg.net