Updates at market close

By Twesha Dikshit and Fergal Smith

TORONTO, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index rose on Tuesday to a record high, with the materials and technology sectors leading broad-based gains as optimism rose that the U.S. Federal Reserve would cut interest rates in September.

The S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE ended up 549.65 points, or 2%, at 27,570.08, after three straight days of declines. It was the biggest gain since April 11 and eclipsed the record closing high that was posted last Tuesday.

The index was playing catch-up with Wall Street after a Canadian market holiday on Monday.

Investors see a roughly 95% chance the Fed will ease next month after the release of downbeat U.S. jobs data on Friday. 0#USDIRPR

"People see (the U.S. unemployment numbers) as being the rationale for a reduction in interest rates at the Fed, and that's essentially positive for stock markets," said Thomas Caldwell, chairman at Caldwell Securities.

"Earnings are coming across fairly well and so the world is moving on, but there's this undercurrent of what will be the longer-term damage of tariffs and this upending of world trade."

Canada's merchandise trade deficit widened in June to C$5.9 billion ($4.24 billion) as imports grew faster than exports due to a one-time high-value oil equipment import.

Canada will provide up to C$1.2 billion ($870 million) to help softwood lumber producers deal with U.S. countervailing and anti-dumping duties, Prime Minister Mark Carney said.

The material sector .GSPTTMT, which includes lumber producers as well as fertilizer companies and metal mining shares, jumped 5.6% as the price of gold XAU= edged higher.

Technology .SPTTTK was up 3%, with e-commerce platform Shopify Inc SHOP.TO adding more than 7% ahead of the release of its quarterly earnings report on Wednesday.

All ten major sectors on the TSX posted gains, with both industrials and heavily weighted financials adding 1.2%.

(Reporting by Fergal Smith and Twesha Dikshit; Editing by Sahal Muhammed and Daniel Wallis)

((fergal.smith@thomsonreuters.com; +1 647 480 7446))