(Updates with market opening prices)

By Ragini Mathur

Jan 29 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index rose on

Wednesday led by mining shares, as investors cheered the Bank of

Canada's decision to cut interest rates by a quarter percentage

point.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index

was up 0.3% at 25,502.94, its highest level since

December 12.

The Bank of Canada

cut its key policy rate

by 25 basis points to 3%, lowered its growth forecast to

1.8% in 2025 from the 2.1% predicted in October and warned

Canadians that a tariff war triggered by the U.S. could cause

major economic damage.

Wednesday's decision was the sixth consecutive time the

Bank of Canada lowered interest rates, reducing them by a total

of 2 percentage points over seven months.

"As we work through all of these challenges with the

U.S. and political uncertainty, the Bank of Canada's in there

trying to support the economy as they can and that's probably

also helping to support the market as well," said Colin

Cieszynski, chief market strategist at SIA Wealth Management.

On Tuesday, the White House said U.S. President Donald Trump

still plans to hit Mexico and Canada with tariffs on Saturday.

Among sectors, metal mining shares led the

gains on Wednesday by rising over 1%, supported by silver mining

companies as they tracked strength in the precious metal.

Information Technology also gained 0.5% as it

continued previous session's rebound after a major selloff on

Monday.

Later in the day, the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to

end a three-meeting run of rate cuts and stay on hold, but

investors will be eager to get a sense of what it makes of

Trump's eventful first nine days back in charge.

Since resuming office last week, Trump has expressed his

desire for lower rates and reiterated that he believes the Fed

should consider his views.

Among individual stocks, MDA Space ( MDALF ) fell 16.7% to

the bottom of TSX.