Taiwan stocks ended little changed on Monday, with big tech shares like TSMC reversing early losses on recent foreign buying while industrials were hit by lowered expectations of trade concessions from China. The TAIEX share index finished with a slim loss of 0.02 percent to 5,966.85, backing off from a confrontation with heavy technical resistance at 6,000 points after the sharp advances in the past two sessions. "We are seeing the May MSCI effect," said Alex Huang, vice president in charge of research at Barits International Securities. "Foreign net buying is clearly supporting the market."
Foreign investors have racked up more than T$31 billion in net buying since the beginning of the month, ahead of Morgan Stanley Capital International's (MSCI's) upgrade to Taiwan's weighting in its closely-tracked indices on May 31.
Foreign investor favourite Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) shook off intraday losses of 1.3 percent to end 0.18 percent higher. The world's largest contract microchip maker also posted April revenues after close of trade, showing a second straight monthly rise from February's 21-month low.
Chip designer Silicon Integrated Systems was the most actively traded issue, jumping 4.41 percent to T$15.40.
Overall market turnover was modest at T$64.36 billion, however, easing from Friday's T$80.4 billion.
Traditional industries were the weakest performers as hopes that opposition party leader James Soong's mainland trip will yield trade concessions from China began to fade.
Analysts said Soong was receiving less coverage in China's official media than an earlier visit from opposition Nationalist Party leader Lien Chan, and the mood was likely to remain cautious until Soong meets Chinese President Hu Jintao.
"It looks as if this visit will just improve the political mood. We don't think that there will be substantial agreements," said Barits' Huang.
China Steel Corp, which sees much of its output eventually exported to China by downstream firms, fell 1.19 percent to T$33.20 in active trading.
Tyre maker Cheng Shin Rubber, which both manufactures and sells products on the mainland, tumbled 3.29 percent to T$35.30 and shipper Evergreen Marine fell 0.95 percent to T$31.40.
The over-the-counter market's TAISDAQ index rose 0.33 percent to 114.63, while May TAIEX index futures ended with a loss of 1 point, or 0.02 percent, to close at 5,947.
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