Despite struggling to make it to the positive zone during much of the day’s session, the Switzerland stock market ended on a firm note on Monday with investors indulging in some brisk buying at several counters past mid afternoon.
The benchmark SMI rebounded after a weak start, but faltered again soon and stayed sluggish for well over a couple of hours past noon before climbing higher. The index ended the session with a gain of 81.21 points or 0.74% at 11,048.58.
Richemont rallied 3% and Partners Group gained about 2.8%. Roche Holding shares gained 2.15% after the company sait that a Phase 3 study on its monoclonal antibody drug Tecentriq met the primary endpoint of providing disease-free survival to lung cancer patients.
Lonza Group shares moved up 2.1%, while Givaudan and SGS ended higher by 1.2% and 1.15%, respectively. Swisscom, Geberit and Alcon also closed on a firm note.
Novartis, which declined sharply early on in the session, recovered to settle marginally up. The company announced that it has appointed Karen L. Hale as Chief Legal Officer.
Credit Suisse, UBS Group, Swiss Re and LafargeHolcim finished modestly lower.
In the Mid Price Index, AMS, Straumann Holding and Logitech gained 2.3 to 2.7%. Barry Callebaut, Schindler Holding, Tecan Group, Lindt & Spruengli, Schindler Ps, Kuehne & Nagel, Galenica Sante, VAT Group and Julius Baer moved up 1.2 to 2%.
On the other hand, Dufty ended 4.8% down, BB Biotech closed lower by 3.6% and Flughafen Zurich declned 3.1%.
On the vaccine front, Swiss drugs regulator Swissmedic has approved Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, according to reports. This is the third shot approved by the country after vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech and from Moderna.
Market Analysis
Swiss Market Ends On Firm Note
2021-03-22 17:47:23
