TORONTO (Reuters) - The Toronto Stock Exchange’s main index plunged more than 360 points, its steepest one-day percentage loss since April 2004, as commodity issues led a broad retreat after a sharp sell-off in Chinese stocks sparked concerns about growth in the Asian giant.The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 364.35 points, or 2.7 percent, at 13,040.11, after dipping as much as 456 points in the session.

The slide is also the benchmark index’s biggest one-day point drop since the dying days of the tech bubble in February 2001, dragging it off recent record heights and highlighting its vulnerability to commodity price swings.

The market fell alongside other global equity markets after China’s main stock index plunged on concerns that share valuations there had become overextended.

“It all started overnight in China with that surprise and very strange 9 percent drop, and it sort of rolled over on the other Asian markets, then Europe and then North America, and it got worse and worse,” said Carlos Leitao, chief economist at Laurentian Bank Securities in Montreal.

In the United States, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 3.3 percent, while the Nasdaq composite index sagged 3.9 percent. “On a relative basis, it’s interesting to note that the TSX is off less than either the S&P or the Dow or the Nasdaq,” said George Vasic, equity strategist at UBS Securities Canada.

“Many people would have predicted that, on a day like today where China is a trigger, we would’ve fallen more because of our resource-heavy weighting, but we did not,” he said.

The TSX index, tipping over after setting seven record closes in the past nine sessions, is still up 11 percent since last September.

Tuesday’s sell-off dragged the benchmark index to its lowest level in two weeks. It is now up a mere six points in February.