Taiwan share prices closed flat Thursday after a tug of war between selling in old economy stocks and bargain hunting in large cap electronics, dealers said. The weighted index rose 4.84 points, or 0.06 percent, to 7,928.94, after moving between 7,886.73 and 7,948.73, on turnover of NT$123.35 billion (US$3.87 billion). The market opened slightly higher, up 1.38 points, despite lingering concerns over the global economic climate, dealers said. During the trade, bargain hunters turned active, picking up select high tech heavyweights on low valuations in price, but profit taking pressure, in particular in the shipping and financial sectors, offset the gains, dealers said. A total of 1,609 stocks closed up and 2,040 down, while 303 remained unchanged. The machinery and electronics sector scored the highest gains, up 0.8 percent. Foodstuffs rose 0.5 percent, plastics and chemical stocks gained 0.3 percent and cement shares added 0.1 percent. The financial sector fell 1.9 percent, the textile sector lost 0.9 percent, the paper and pulp sector dropped 0.8 percent and the construction sector closed down 0.5 percent. 'Judging from the gains posted by large cap electronics stocks, I suspect foreign institutional investors stood on the buying side today after recent selloff, ' TLG Asset Management analyst Arch Shih said. Shih said further gains on Wall Street overnight gave some comfort to foreign investors and prompted them to resume buying. 'But, the buying was technical in nature as fears of weaker global demand on a slower global economy persisted,' Shih said. Such quick rotational buying is still dominating the trade and the local bourse still lacks a mainstream sector to push the index higher, Shih said. 'The market remains in a consolidation mode ahead of technical pressure at the key 8,000 point mark, ' he said, referring to the latest profit taking in shipping and financial stocks, which recently staged a strong rebound amid optimism over cross strait business exchanges. Shih said it will take some time to digest the selling before the market overcomes the technical hurdles ahead of the 8,000- point mark. Hon Hai Precision, the world's largest contract maker of electronics products, was up 3.05 percent at NT$135.00, PC firm AsusTek rose 2.88 percent to NT$232.00 and IC packaging and testing service provider ASE increased 1.25 percent to NT$24.30. Among financial stocks, Cathay Financial fell 2.03 percent to NT$48.25 and Chang Hwa Bank dropped 2.66 percent to NT$18.30. 