Shares in Taiwan tech giant Hon Hai fell by their 7.0 percent daily limit today, the biggest percentage drop since November 2008, after it released worse-than-expected first quarter results.

The parent of Apple goods maker Foxconn tumbled by the maximum permitted by Taiwan securities regulators after reporting net profit of Tw$14.9 billion (US$512 million) in the three months to March.

"The first-quarter net profit was around Tw$3 billion less than we had anticipated," Edison Lee of Grand Cathay Securities told AFP. He expected the price to fall further Wednesday, when markets reopen after a public holiday.

Hon Hai's first quarter net profit was up slightly from Tw$14.4 billion in the same period last year, but down sharply from the last quarter of 2011, when it posted Tw$35 billion in profits.

Lee and other analysts said the decline could partly reflect higher costs at Foxconn, which also makes products Sony and Nokia.

Foxconn has come under increasing criticism in recent years for its treatment of its workers and has responded with steep hikes in wages, among other things.

Foxconn, the world's largest maker of computer components, currently employs around one million workers in China.

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