CANADA STOCKS-TSX gains ahead of US-UK trade deal

By Sanchayaita Roy and Sukriti Gupta

May 8 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index edged higher in choppy trading on Thursday on news that the U.S. was on the verge of signing a trade agreement with Britain, while investors assessed mixed corporate results.

Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE mirrored gains in its Wall Street peers, climbing 0.1% to 25,177.76 points.

The United States and Britain will announce a deal to lower tariffs on some goods later in the day, the first such agreement since U.S. President Donald Trump sparked a global trade war with universal levies.

"Same thing that's causing U.S. markets to move higher is also affecting Canada ... the markets got excited about the first trade deal," said Allan Small, senior investment advisor of the Allan Small Financial Group with iA Private Wealth.

Separately, the Bank of Canada said on Thursday that a prolonged trade war could increase the risks to Canadian financial stability by hurting banks and other institutions and making it harder for households and businesses to pay down debt.

Earlier in the week, Trump administration officials said that U.S. and Chinese representatives would meet in Switzerland over the weekend for "ice-breaker" trade talks amid weeks of tit-for-tat tariffs

On TSX, energy .SPTTEN stocks led the gains, up 1.9%, as oil prices rose over 1%.

Mining stocks .GSPTTMT slipped 0.6%, as gold prices fell.

Among individual stocks, Shopify SHOP.TO fell 3.5% after the e-commerce company forecast second-quarter profit below estimates.

Cenovus Energy CVE.TO surged 7.5% after the Canadian oil and gas producer beat first-quarter profit estimates.