CANADA STOCKS-TSX slips as investors brace for reciprocal US tariffs

By Sanchayaita Roy

April 1 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index fell on Tuesday, hurt by losses in communication shares, as investors avoided risk ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's planned reveal of reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday.

Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE was down 0.45% at 24,806.62 points.

Trump is preparing to unveil tariffs aligning U.S. duties with those of other nations on Wednesday. He said on Sunday the levies will include all countries, but specific details were scant.

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that White House aides have drafted plans for tariffs of about 20% on most of the $3 trillion of goods imported annually to the U.S.

"If tariffs are anything close to that, that's going to take a lot of buying power out of U.S. consumers pockets and effectively that's a very large tax increase that will weigh as a pretty serious dampener on U.S. growth," said Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.

"It's also going to hurt growth in places like Canada as well because they're going to have a harder time selling into the U.S. market."

Capped communication .GSPTTTS led the declines among index sectors, falling 1.7%; Rogers Communications RCIb.TO dropped nearly 5% after brokerage Scotiabank cut the company's rating to 'sector perform' from 'sector outperform'.

Heavily-weighted financials .SPTTFS were also down 0.7%.

On the flipside, consumer staples .GSPTTCS gained for a fourth consecutive session, rising 0.43%.

Rate-sensitive real estate .GSPTTRE climbed 0.1%, and utilities .GSPTTUT, often traded as a bond proxy, also rose as government's 10-year bond yields CA10YT=RR fell for a fourth straight day.

Domestic data released on Monday showed Canadian manufacturing activity contracted at a steeper rate in March.

South of the border, U.S. job openings fell in February as rising uncertainty over the economy due to tariffs on imports curbed demand for labor.