Toronto financial sector had been building impressively for last week; nervous investors cashed in yesterday

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TORONTO - A selloff in the financial sector pushed the Toronto stock market's key index down by more than 300 points yesterday while sentiment against commodity stocks overshadowed strong earnings reports from the likes of market heavies EnCana Corp. (TSX:ECA) and Potash Corp. (TSX:POT).

New York indexes were also sharply lower amid mixed corporate results, a dismal housing report and another selloff of financial stocks.

Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index tumbled 306.52 points to 13,206.14, while New York's Dow Jones industrial average fell 283.1 points to 11,349.28.

EnCana shares inched up 27 cents to $73.41 after a 30 per cent surge in second-quarter revenue to $7.32 billion, although net income declined 14 per cent to $1.22 billion due to hedging losses.

PotashCorp shares lost $5.38 to $196.85 after the world's biggest producer of crop nutrients had its best-ever quarterly earnings of $905.1 million, up by 220 per cent from a year ago.

The TSX Venture Exchange declined 38.36 points to 2,184.77 while the Canadian dollar moved down 0.29 of a cent to 98.69 cents US.

The Nasdaq composite index retreated 45.77 points to 2,280.11.

The Toronto financials sector had racked up an impressive series of gains since last week's parade of much better than expected quarterly results from American banks. But nervous investors cashed in profits Thursday.