OTTAWA, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The benchmark index of the Toronto stock market joined a global market plunge sparked by a drop in China's main stock market Tuesday, tumbling 364 points to close at 13,040.11.

    The S&P/TSX composite index fell 2.7 percent from a day earlier,just better than its worst point when it was down 457 points last time. Every sector was in negative territory, with resource stocks leading the charge down.

    The Canadian dollar slipped 0.39 of a cent to 85.77 U.S. cents and the TSX Venture Exchange dropped 84.6 points to 3,190.04.

    Bearing much of the brunt were Canadian mining companies, as investors worried that the plunge in the Chinese exchange would mean a sharp drop in demand for metals. About 45 percent of the Canadian stock market is made up of energy and other commodity stocks.

    The losses followed an almost 9 percent plunge overnight in Chinese stocks, a biggest drop in a decade.