Taiwan stocks were down 2.39 percent on Monday, the biggest daily loss in 10 months, as investors, returning from a holiday break, responded to regional developments including heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula and bird flu in China. The main TAIEX index shed 189.56 points to 7,752.79, after opening down 1.4 percent. Taiwan markets were closed for a four-day holiday after last Wednesday.
Electronics shares retreated 2.2 percent, while financial shares fell 2.8 percent. HTC Corp eased 2.2 percent before first-quarter earnings due in the afternoon. Facebook Inc introduced a $100 handset made by the Taiwanese smartphone vendor last week that is pre-installed with a new app called "Home" that replaces the home screen on some Android smartphones. The Taiwan dollar was down T$0.08 to stand at T$30.005 to the US dollar.