Swiss Market Ends Weak

The Switzerland stock market ended weak on Wednesday, in line with the trend seen across Europe. However, losses posted by the Swiss market was relatively less pronounced than in other major markets in the region.

The market, which spent a little over an hour in positive territory after recovering from a weak start, faltered again in late morning trades and then stayed weak till the end.

The benchmark SMI ended the session with a loss of 59.81 points or 0.55% at 10,904.24, more than 70 points off the day’s low of 10,964.05. The index touched a high of 11,000.05 around mid morning.

Lonza Group, Credit Suisse, Sika, LafargeHolcim and Swiss Life Holding lost 1.4 to 1.7%. UBS Group, Richemont, Swatch Group and Partners Group ended lower by 1 to 1.2%, while Roche Holding, Swiss Re and SGS slid 0.7 to 0.85%.

Swisscom rallied 4.7% after Taiwanese company MediaTek Inc. announced it has reached a 5G carrier aggregation and voice over new radio milestone in collaboration with Swisscom, Ericsson and Oppo, advancing 5G networks across Europe.

Alcon and Nestle ended with modest gains of 0.6% and 0.45%, respectively.

Among the stocks in the Swiss Mid Price Index, Straumann Holding ended 4.1% down, BB Biotech declined 3.7% and Gerorg Fischer lost 3.3%, while, Cembro Money Bank, Tecan Group, VAT Group, SIG Combibloc and Lindt & Spruengli ended lower by 1.6 to 2%.

Logitech moved up by about 1.9%. PSP Swiss Property, Ems Chemie Holding, AMS and Swiss Prime Site Posted moderate gains.

On the vaccine front, the Swiss government is negotiating a supply agreement for the vaccine with the American company Johnson & Johnson, according to NZZ newspaper. The company is expected to release results of a large clinical trial early next week.

If the deal is agreed, Johnson & Johnson would be Switzerland’s fourth supplier of coronavirus vaccines, after Pfizer/BioNtech, Moderna and AstraZeneca.

The Swiss government has stated that it would spend more than a billion dollars on testing for asymptomatic Covid-19 cases, saying they were probably responsible for most new infections.