By Fergal Smith

TORONTO, August 26 (Reuters) – Canada’s main stock index fell the most since mid-July on Friday, echoing weak sentiment on Wall Street, after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said US monetary policy will need to be tightened “for a while” before inflation is under control.

The Toronto Stock Exchange S&P/TSX Composite Index .GSPTSE ended down 299.05 points, or 1.5%, at 19,873.29, its biggest decline since July 14 and its lowest closing level since August 9.

For the week, the index fell 1.2%, its second consecutive weekly decline.

Losses on Wall Street were even bigger after Powell’s remarks dashed investors’ hopes that the Fed’s aggressive approach to raising interest rates could soon be changed.

“It’s probably a bit more hawkish than some expected,” said Greg Taylor, portfolio manager at Purpose Investments.

The healthcare and technology sectors led broad-based declines, down 5.1% and 4.4% respectively, as the prospect of continued rate hikes hurt high-growth stocks.

The 13.7% drop in OpenText shares also weighed on the technology sector. OTEX.TO after the software company agreed to buy UK enterprise software maker Micro Focus MCRO.L. The all-cash deal valued Micro Focus at $6 billion, including debt.

Heavily weighted financials ended down nearly 1% to end a week marked by mixed quarterly results from some of Canada’s major banks.

The materials group, which includes precious and base metal miners and fertilizer companies, lost 2.5% on falling gold prices.

(Additional reporting by Aniruddha Ghosh and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri, Maju Samuel and Richard Chang)

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