CANADA STOCKS-Toronto market ends higher as industrials rally; Air Canada skids

(Updates at market close)

By Shubham Batra and Fergal Smith

May 2 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index rose on Thursday, led by industrial shares, with broader market sentiment underpinned by the Federal Reserve's signal the previous day that interest rate cuts remain on the table.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index ended up 94.67 points, or 0.44%, at 21,823.22.

All three major U.S. stock indexes ended higher, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq enjoying a healthy boost from chip stocks after Qualcomm reported quarterly sales and profit above analyst expectations.

Investors continued to parse Fed Chair Jerome Powell's assurances on Wednesday that the central bank's next policy move will be to lower its key policy rate, after it left rates unchanged at the end of its monthly meeting.

"Markets are breathing a sigh of relief today as yesterday's Fed meeting was less hawkish than feared," said Angelo Kourkafas, investment strategist at Edward Jones Investments.

Investors are betting that the Bank of Canada will move to cut rates before the Fed.

"There's a limit to how far U.S. and Canadian interest rates can diverge but "certainly we're not close to that limit", Governor Tiff Macklem told Canada's House of Commons finance committee.

The industrial sector rose 2.4%.

Shares of news and information provider Thomson Reuters Corp jumped 6.9% after the company beat first-quarter revenue forecasts, lifted its financial outlook for 2024 and raised its annual dividend by 10% as it continued to invest heavily in artificial intelligence.

Air Canada was a drag. Shares of Canada's largest carrier dropped 8.4% after the company reported a bigger-than-expected first-quarter loss on higher operating costs tied to labor and aircraft maintenance.

TD Bank shares fell 1.6% after Canada's anti-money laundering agency slapped its biggest-ever penalty of nearly C$9.2 million ($6.7 million) on Canada's No. 2 lender over non-compliance of anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. (Reporting by Fergal Smith in Toronto and Shubham Batra and Khushi Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore, Shilpi Majumdar and Deepa Babington)