Taiwan stocks finish flat

Taiwan stocks closed flat on Monday as losses in construction stocks outweighed gains in heavyweight technology shares such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. The benchmark TAIEX share index ended down 0.01 percent at 6,878.88 points, limiting its gain to 4 percent since late March.
The construction sub-index slid 1.89 percent amid worries that a 54 percent rally since the end of March was overdone, while the electronics sub-index rose 0.4 percent as some technology shares chased gains on Wall Street.
"Despite tech shares' gains today, the market is in a cautious mood ahead of the US Fed meeting," said Mike Hsiao, head of equities at Invesco Taiwan, referring to a US Federal Reserve meeting in June. "Foreign investors have posted a net sell of Taiwan shares for the last 11 straight sessions, reflecting worries the Fed will raise interest rates soon."
The banking and insurance sub-index slipped 0.19 percent.
Turnover shrank to T$82.97 billion (US $2.59 billion), its lowest since March 30, dropping from T$126.7 billion in the previous session. Heavyweight tech shares finished higher after the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index ended up 0.55 percent on Friday.
Among the five most active issues by volume, TSMC, the world's largest contract chip maker, closed 1.18 percent higher, while smaller rival United Microelectronics Corp edged up 0.25 percent. Property stocks fell, with Cathay Construction, Taiwan's biggest real estate developer, falling 3.78 percent. King's Town Construction dropped 3.55 percent.
Some financial stocks rose, boosted by Chinatrust Financial, amid investor hopes their bad consumer credit debts would start easing in the third quarter, said Sarah Hung, a banking analyst at Fubon Securities. Taiwan's banks have written off billions of dollars of bad debts to cover defaults, since credit card and cash card problems began a year ago.
Chinatrust, Taiwan's top credit card issuer and number six financial holding firm by assets, jumped 3.55 percent. Cathay Financial, the biggest financial holding company, ended even at T$72.50 after rising as much as 1.1 percent during the session.
Chi Mei Optoelectronics, Taiwan's number two flat panel maker, closed down 0.27 percent. Chi Mei is set to invest T$80-T$100 billion (US $2.5-US $3.1 billion) to build its first plant using sixth-generation technology, the Economic Daily said.
Company officials were not available for comment.