TSX tumbles for second session, touches 11-month low

By Trish Nixon

TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto stocks plunged for a second straight session on Friday, touching their weakest point since August 2010, as fears of a global recession hammered the resource-heavy market.

While U.S. stocks see-sawed, Toronto's main stock index at one point fell almost 4 percent, its worst intraday drop in more than two years.

The S&P/TSX composite index ended down 217.96 points, or 1.76 percent, at 12,162.17, led by a 2.46 percent drop in energy stocks.

"It's the bias of the index," said Paul Hand, managing director at RBC Capital Markets, citing the impact of falling commodity prices on natural resource stocks.

World stocks fell for an eighth day on Friday in a dizzying descent that has wiped around $2.5 trillion off the value of global equities this week, but hopes the European Central Bank will buy bonds of crisis-hit Italy helped lift markets off the lows of the day.

Toronto's sell-off followed a steep 3.4 percent drop on Thursday, the TSX's biggest one-day loss in two years, as markets worldwide fell prey to fears about slowing economic growth and the euro zone's debt crisis.

The index was down more than 6 percent for the week. It has lost more than 15 percent since March 7, when it touched its 2011 high.

Friday's intraday fall -- at one point more than 3.9 percent to 11,894.7 -- was the biggest since June 2009. It marked the lowest level since August 2010.