Shares closed up 0.13 percent yesterday as profit-taking trimmed stronger earlier gains, dealers said.
Investors were waiting for fresh leads to justify pushing the market firmly beyond the 9,500 points level, they said.
The TAIEX closed up 11.98 points at 9,488.50, on turnover of NT$165.36 billion (US$5.05 billion).
Decliners led risers 983 to 834, while 272 stocks were unchanged.
On the foreign exchange market, the New Taiwan dollar closed the day's trading at NT$32.578 against its US counterpart, up NT$0.002 from the previous close of NT$32.580.
"Investors seemed to have their doubts again when the market recovered to levels where technical resistance converged," said Alex Huang (黃國偉), an assistant vice president at Mega International Investment Services (兆豐國際投顧).
The turnover of recent sessions proved insufficient to help the benchmark index test its previous highs above 9,500 points, he noted.
As things stand, the market may have to consolidate for a couple of weeks as investors wait to see how US markets fare in the near term and ahead of local companies' third-quarter results due out later this month, he said.
The bellwether technology sector came under heavier pressure yesterday as some investors were wary about the prospect of companies not delivering on their usually strong fourth quarter, Huang added.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (
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