(Updates with morning prices, analyst quote)

By Rashika Singh and Ragini Mathur

March 30 (Reuters) - Canada's resource-heavy main stock

index rose on Monday, lifted by mining and energy gains, as

firmer commodity prices offset concerns about a widening Middle

East conflict.

At 10:37 a.m. ET, the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX

Composite Index was up 0.7% at 32,201.91.

Oil prices extended gains on renewed supply disruption

worries, with Brent heading for a record monthly rise, while

gold rose for a second straight session as safe-haven demand

picked up.

The heavyweight mining and energy

sectors were up 1% and 1.2%, respectively, with 10 out of 11

major sectors on the index trading in the green.

But Kevin Headland, co-chief investment strategist at

Manulife Investments, advised caution. "We don't believe oil is

going to remain structurally this high for long," he said.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington was in

serious discussions with a "more reasonable regime" in Iran to

end the war, but repeated his warning that the U.S. would attack

Iranian oil wells and power plants if the Middle Eastern country

did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

His comments come after Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militia

entered the war over the weekend.

High oil prices have helped Canada's commodity-heavy stock

index weather a war-shaken March better than the S&P 500,

falling about 6.3% during the month versus the U.S. benchmark's

near-7% retreat.

The TSX climbed 2.1% last week, snapping a three-week losing

streak, though it is still on track to close the month with its

weakest performance since June 2022.

Elsewhere, a leadership shake-up weighed on Air Canada ( ACDVF ), with the

airline's shares sliding 2.5% after it announced CEO

Michael Rousseau will step down by the end of the third quarter.

(Reporting by Rashika Singh and Ragini Mathur in Bengaluru)