Swiss Market Ends Weak Despite Coming Off Day’s Lows

Save for a few minutes in the final hour, the Switzerland stock market stayed in negative territory on Thursday as investors remained reluctant to make significant moves amid uncertainty about the near term direction.

Data showing a drop in Swiss exports, and persisting worries about growth due to rise in coronavirus cases and lockdown restrictions weighed on stocks.

The benchmark SMI ended lower by 54.42 points or 0.5% at 10,849.82. The index, which slipped to 10,712.78 earlier in the session, briefly moved into positive territory to 10,918.36 before drifting lower.

Lonza Group declined by about 3.3%. Swisscom drifted down by about 3% and Alcon ended lower by 1.5%. Novartis, Nestle and Roche Holding lost 0.8 to 1.2%.

Swatch Group shares ended lower by 0.8%. The stock fell nearly 4% early on in the session after reporting its first annual loss in nearly 40 years.

Credit Suisse, Richemont, UBS Group and Sika gained 1.4 to 1.8%. Swiss Re advanced 1.1% and Geberit gained nearly 1%.

In the midcap section, Adecco shed 1.85%, while Sonova, Galenica Sante, Lindt & Spruengli, Temenos Group and Tecan Group lost 0.7 to 1.1%.

Dufry soared nearly 7.5%. Flughafen Zurich, AMS, Logitech, Schindler Holding and Schindler Ps gained 2.3 to 3%, while Straumann Holding, Georg Fischer, Julius Baer and Cembra Money Bank moved up 1.4 to 1.75%.

Data from the Federal Customs Administration showed Switzerland’s exports decreased by a real 6.4% month-on-month in December, after a 5.6% growth in November.

Imports declined 6.7% monthly in December, after a 4.7% rise in the previous month.

In nominal terms, exports fell 6.1% and imports decreased 7.1%, the data showed.

In 2020, the trade surplus increased to CHF 43.0 billion from CHF 37.2 billion in 2019. Exports declined by a real 11% and imports fell 13.6%.

In nominal terms, exports decreased 7.1% in 2020 and imports dropped 11.2%.

According to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, watch exports declined 2.5% year-on-year in December. In 2020, watch exports decreased 21.8%, the report said.