Overseas woes dampen TAIEX
The local bourse came under pressure yesterday as sentiment was dampened by JPMorgan’s trading losses of US$2 billion, dealers said.
Worries about how Greece will deal with its debt problem remained in place, weighing on market sentiment as the European country has not yet formed a coalition government since its parliamentary vote on Sunday, they added.
The TAIEX closed down 82.64 points, or 1.10 percent, at 7,401.37 after moving between 7,382.95 and 7,473.55. Turnover during the session totaled NT$67.44 billion (US$2.29 billion).
The financial and foodstuff sectors suffered the heaviest losses among the eight largest sectors of the market, finishing down 1.7 percent.
Tariff cuts extended
The Ministry of Finance yesterday said it would extend the cut in tariffs on seven imported products by six months to stabilize the price and supply of the products.
The tariff cuts on four of the seven products — butter, anhydrous milk fat, corn powder and soybean flour — will be extended to Nov. 30, while the cuts on the other three — infant milk powder, formula milk powder and other milk powder — extended to Nov. 24, the ministry said in a report.
Tariffs on butter and anhydrous milk fat will be cut by 25 percent, with those on the five other products by 50 percent, the ministry said.
The cut would lower the ministry’s tax revenue by NT$155.63 million for a half year, its statistics showed.
TAMI delegation wins orders
A group of machinery makers have secured orders from buyers in Chile following a trade promotion conference held in the South American country, Taiwan’s representative office in Chile said on Thursday.
A delegation organized by the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI) received more than US$5 million in orders during and after the conference in Santiago on Thursday, the office said in a statement.
The Chilean buyers were looking for machines in a wide range of applications, including for packaging, metal cutting, textile manufacturing, footwear production and food processing, the statement said.
According to the Bureau of Foreign Trade, exports to Chile rose 23.13 percent from a year earlier to US$398 million last year, while imports from Chile grew 3.09 percent to US$2.17 billion in the same period.
MediaTek, Gameloft link up
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) and France’s mobile gaming giant Gameloft yesterday announced a global strategic partnership aimed at offering gamers high-quality products supported by MediaTek mobile platforms.
MediaTek, one of Taiwan’s leading integrated circuit designers, said in a statement that its newest single chip solution, the MT6255, will be preloaded with Gameloft’s most popular games at no extra cost to manufacturers.
The French company has already begun to have game development teams in France, Vietnam and China and create games that will run on MediaTek-powered mobile platforms, the statement said.
NT dollar plunges in value
The New Taiwan dollar had its biggest weekly loss this year as investors sold assets amid concerns over the political impasse in Greece.
The NT dollar fell 0.1 percent from Thursday and declined 0.4 percent this week to close at NT$29.410 against its US counterpart, while turnover totaled US$751 million during yesterday’s session, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
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