TORONTO (Reuters) - Buyers of Canadian banks, utilities, property firms and some retailers look set to become long-term winners if the country's currency - as many predict - resumes its recent rally to top the US dollar in value.

But manufacturers, including auto parts makers, forestry companies, and other export-reliant industries, are expected to feel further pain as the soaring currency cools sales and slices into profit margins.

Strategists and money managers said the export sector's woes will force the Bank of Canada to keep interest-rate policy easy for a long time, ensuring a strong performance by the stocks most sensitive to rates.

"Deflation is more a risk than inflation, so rates are going to stay low. The dollar is putting tremendous pressure on the inflation rate," said Paul Gardner, portfolio manager at Avenue Investment Management, which manages about C$130 million ($120 million).

"People are going to go up the risk curve and buy dividends, companies that have stability to them, and that's banks and real estate."

The fund manager, who warns Canada could enter "a Japan situation" where a strong currency, aging population and overcapacity all drag on growth, also likes the prospects for utilities and dominant telecom players such as Rogers Communications Inc.

The Canadian dollar reached parity with the greenback for the first time in decades in 2007, powered by soaring commodity and energy prices. It has not traded there since July 2008, when the financial crisis spurred a safe-haven flight back into the US dollar.

The loonie, nicknamed for the bird depicted on the one dollar coin, hit a four-year low in March then rallied 28 percent to a 2009 high of 97.97 US cents on October 15.

It retreated after aggressive warnings by the central bank that its flight threatens economic recovery. It closed at 92.43 US cents on Friday.