Taipei - The Taiwan stock market plunged more than 5 per cent by mid-session Thursday due to overnight falls on Wall Street caused by the US government's plans to revise its 700-billion-US-dollar bail-out plan.

Two hours after trading opened, the benchmark TAIEX index had dipped 239.97 points, or 5.20 per cent, to 4,375.60.

The Taiwan dollar fell from Wednesday's 32.994 Taiwan dollars to the US dollar to 33.145 Taiwan dollars to 1 US dollar. (dpa)