Toronto markets took a turn for the worse Tuesday as financial and technology stocks offset gains in gold and energy shares, while Wall Street suffered its worse loss in seven months.

At close, the Toronto S&P/TSX composite index was down 41.84 points or 0.43% at 9640.47 while the TSX Venture Exchange managed to stay in the black, adding 1.78 points or 0.09% to 1956.06. Volume on the TSx was heavy at 343 million shares.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrials tumbled 174.02 points or 1.61% at 10611.20. That was its worst hit since Aug. 5, according to Bloomberg.

The tech-intensive Nasdaq lost 28.30 points or 1.37% at 2030.32, while the S&P 500 index slid 17.42 points or 1.45% at 1184.17.

The Canadian dollar was up more than a half-cent, 0.58¢, to US81.63¢ late in the day as the U.S. dollar fell sharply against other major currencies after a report that said South Korea plans to diversify its foreign exchange reserves unnerved markets.

In Toronto, strong gains by energy and gold shares gave way to losses by bank stocks and technology issues.

Gold stocks jumped 3.35% as gold spot prices added $7.40 to US$434.50 in New York. Energy stocks were up 1.27% as oil prices jumped to their highest level in more than three months. After climbing as high as US$51.40, light sweet crude for March delivery settled at US$51.15 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, an increase of US$2.80.

But technology stocks were down 2% and financials slid 0.96% to pull the TSX down. Among the latter group, shares of Bank of Montreal shares lost 69¢ or 1.22% to $56.01 even as it reported quarterly earnings of $602 million, up 15% from a year ago.

In New York, the combination of rising oil prices, and dollar woes hit U.S. markets hard.

Five stocks were down for every one that was up on the New York Stock Exchange. Some 1.7 billion shares changed hands on the Big Board, making it the busiest trading day this year.