Toronto stocks fell Tuesday, despite higher oil prices, as investors stepped back from recent strong gains on the market. Today’s sell-off mirrored similar drops on U.S. exchanges.

The S&P/TSX composite index fell 112.40, or 0.91%, to 12,177.30.

Eight of the 10 TSX main sub-groups were down, including the materials sector, which fell 1.73%. Gold for June delivery ended down $2.40 at US$599.40 an ounce.

Bema Gold Corp. fell 22¢, or 4.04%, to $5.22.

The key energy index gave up 0.86%.

The benchmark May crude contract finished up 24¢ at $68.98 a barrel.

Canadian Natural Resources fell 11¢, or 0.16%, to $69.21.

The information technology sector lost 2.33%. Nortel Networks, the heaviest traded issuer on the day, fell 17¢, or 5.01%, to $3.22.

The Canadian dollar was up 0.38 of a cent at 87.41 cents US.

The S&P/TSX Venture Exchange index fell 55.90, or 1.83%, to 2,991.40.

In New York, markets fell on concerns over inflation, higher oil prices and geo-political instability.

The Dow industrials fell 51.70 points to 11,089.63, the Nasdaq Composite index dropped 22.92 points to 2,310.35, and the S&P 500 Index dropped 10.04 points to 1,286.56.