Toronto, Aug 5 (IANS): North America's biggest resource market here followed mayhem on New York markets Thursday as investors worried about the possibility of a deeper slowdown fuelled by the European debt crisis.

Matching the worst one-day plunge of 4.3 percent or 512.76 points in the Dow Jones industrial average, the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) index too sank 436 points to close at 12,380 points.

All Canadian global brands such as RIM, Bombardier and Potash Corp. suffered steep falls.

With Thursday's plunge, the Toronto stock exchange, which is the world leader in mining and oil and gas sectors, is down eight percent since the beginning of the year.

The energy sector was the biggest loser, with oil prices slipping below $90 a barrel. Canada holds the world's second largest reserves of oil after Saudi Arabia.

The mining sector slipped 7.63 percent and the energy sector 4.1 per cent. All major banks were down as were insurance companies.

Canada's known global names suffered big losses Thursday. In fact, the announcement of five new BlackBerries by Research In Motion (RIM) Wednesday failed to stop five percent plunge in its stock which closed at $23.15. These are the lowest levels the stock has touched since 2006.

The world's biggest fertilizer company Potash Corp. sunk almost seven percent and world rail and aviation leader Bombardier slipped almost three percent.

The high-flying Canadian dollar, which has been hovering above 105 cents US for sometime, was also brought down to 102 cents US by the nervous sentiment.