NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Major bolsas in the Americas took a beating Thursday on news of weak oil prices, domestic economic factors and a shaky Russian ruble.
In contrast, Toronto's stock exchange turned in a strong performance in one of its highest volume days.
Brazil stocks dropped a steep 3.33 percent Thursday, weighed down by worries about Russian market instability and fueled by a plunge in Telebras (TBR) shares in New York, brokers said.
Sao Paulo's 52-share Bovespa index was off 328 points at 9,528 points on weak turnover of 495 million reais ($430 million).
"There was weakness in 'bradies', which started with Russian bradies, and this weakness hit Telebras ADRs in the afternoon," said a senior trader at local Indusval brokerage.
"Bradies" refers to securities issued by other nations as part of a debt-restructuring program initiated by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady.
Traders said Brazilian shares, which were up earlier in the day, grew increasingly soft through the afternoon on falls in Russia's ruble currency, stocks and Brady bonds.
Concern about Russia sparked a wave of selling in emerging market stocks, including Telebras ADRs, and dragged down the local benchmark issue, Telebras preferred, they said.
"There was a large sale of ADRs in New York and that caused us to fall here," said a trader at Santander brokerage in Sao Paulo. Telebras ADRs were down 3/02 at 107/03 while its preferred stock in Brazil fell 3.52 percent to 123.50 reais by the bell.
Mexican stocks tumbled on Thursday after the central bank took action against inflation by tightening monetary policy, bringing about higher interest rates and stiffer competition for stocks.
The leading IPC share index fell 144.34 points, or 3.3 percent, to 4233.92.
Declining issues thrashed gainers by 68 to nine of the 98 traded.
Volume was thin at about 55 million shares as traders spent much of the morning watching Mexico's national soccer team battle to gain a spot in the second round of the World Cup.
The peso also trimmed earlier losses but stocks tumbled amid prospects that investors will now shift to more attractive returns in the Cetes market.
"People are going to prefer to go into fixed income," one trader said.
Stocks were also weighed by concerns over continued weakness in the Japanese yen and the world oil markets' cool reaction the new crude output cuts announced Wednesday by OPEC producers.
Mexico has had to shave about $3 billion from its1998 budget because of weak oil prices and analysts have said further belt-tightening may be in order if prices do not recover.
Weaker oil prices also undermined Venezuelan shares, traders said, after oil output cuts by the OPEC cartel failed to jump-start a price recovery.
The bolsa's 15-share IBC index shed 136.43 points, or 2.6 percent, to end at 5,100.83 points.
"The news of more output cuts is a positive, but we still have to see concrete action and a reduction of crude supplies," Exterior broker Reinaldo Uribe said.
Analysts say it will take time for OPEC's 1.355 million barrels per day cut to feed through into higher crude prices.
A Florida ruling Wednesday that banned the use of Venezuela's trademark boiler fuel Orimulsion -- dubbed by environmentalists the "world's filthiest" -- in the gator state further soured market sentiment.
"It's a big step back for the country's plans to market the fuel," one dealer said.
Despite higher turnover than in previous days, brokers said international bids remained scarce.
"The negative outlook for the country has not changed," Multinvest dealer Monica Martinez said.
Toronto stocks closed higher on Thursday with the help of strong performance in bank stocks and golds. Both volume and value were at the third-highest levels in history at 181 million shares worth C$3.3 billion.
The Toronto stock market's key 300 Composite index rose 50.32 points, or 0.69 percent, to 7314.72. 
-- from staff and wire reports
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