Taiwan stocks ended flat on Tuesday as domestic investors opted to take advantage of heavy foreign buying to cash out of recent gains in big technology shares instead of challenging tough technical resistance. The TAIEX share index ended with a gain of 9.99 points, or 0.16 percent, at 6,122.39, wary of breaching the 8-month intraday high of 6,183.15 set on January 3.
AU Optronics Corp, the world's third largest display screen maker, was among the most heavily traded stocks and fell 0.8 percent to T$49.50 to give back some of its 20 percent rise since mid-January.
"Domestic retail and institutional investors are still quite conservative," said Chiang Chen-sheng, research manager at Masterlink Securities Investment Advisory.
Microchip designers as wall as capacitor and resistor makers were favourites for local fund managers, with VIA Technologies adding 1.23 percent to close at T$16.40 and Yageo Corp surging 4.59 percent to T$11.40.
Big semiconductor shares - the focus of Monday's enthusiastic T$20.45 billion in foreign net buying - put in a more muted performance after the last session's gains, however.
United Microelectronics Corp, Monday's most active issue, was unchanged at T$21.00.
But Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world's largest contract microchip maker, added 0.92 percent in heavy trade at T$55.0 after announcing better-than-expected January sales on Monday.
The over-the-counter market's TAISDAQ index edged up 0.14 percent to close at 113.92, while TAIEX February futures slipped 6 points, or 0.1 percent, to 6,123.