Shares closed little changed yesterday in cautious trade, as investors took their lead from Wall Street's lackluster overnight performance ahead of the release of US jobs data, dealers said.
They said concerns over political bickerings during next week's National Day celebrations also drove some investors to the sidelines.
The TAIEX closed down 10.13 points, or 0.11 percent, at 9,617.26 on turnover of NT$158.04 billion (US$4.85 billion).
Decliners outnumbered risers 770 to 1,104, with 221 stocks unchanged.
On the foreign exchange market, the New Taiwan dollar closed the day's trading at NT$32.597 against its US counterpart, up NT$0.002 from the previous close of NT$32.599. Turnover was US$556 million on the Taipei Forex Inc.
The market sentiment was also weighed by uncertainty over whether local companies would be reporting positive results for last month and the third quarter. Companies are due to report their September sales by this Thursday and third-quarter results by the end of the month.
Jih Sun Securities Investment (日盛投顧) deputy manager Wilson Lien (連偉勝), however, said that barring major negative surprises from the US later this week, the market may be ready for another upswing in the near term, with technology and financial stocks likely to lead the rally to drive the benchmark index beyond its year-to-date high of 9,807 points.
For the week to Friday, the weighted index rose 140.74 points, or 1.49 percent, after a 4.08 percent increase a week earlier.
Average daily turnover stood at NT$181.54 billion, up from NT$159.32 billion a week ago.
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