Despite swinging between gains and losses till well past noon, the Switzerland stock market saw some brisk buying in late afternoon trades and closed higher on Thursday, extending its winning streak to an eighth straight day.
Although data showing a bigger than expected acceleration in U.S. inflation in May has raised concerns about the Federal Reserve starting discussions on tapering its asset buying program, optimism about economic recovery aided sentiment in the Swiss market.
The benchmark SMI, which went on to scale a new peak at 11,834.69, ended with a gain of 22.70 points or 0.19% at 11,810.80.
Novartis gained about 1.6%. Givaudan, Holcim and Lonza Group moved up 1.3 to 1.5%, while Swisscom ended 0.9% up.
Swatch Group and Richemont ended lower by 1.8% and 1.4%, respectively. Zurich Insurance Group, Credit Suisse, ABB, Geberit and SGS lost 0.6 to 0.8%.
In the Mid Price index, BB Biotech gained more than 1%. Cembra Money Bank, Straumann Holding and Dufty gained 0.55 to 0.75%.
Logitech shed about 4.2%, while Schindler Holding, Sonova, Schindler Ps and OC Oerlikon Corp lost 1 to 1.4%.
The Governing Council of the European Central Bank, led by ECB President Christine Lagarde, today left key interest rates unchanged and maintained the size of the pandemic emergency purchase programme, or PEPP, at EUR 1,850 billion.
The ECB has raised Eurozone growth forecasts for this year and next and said the risks to the outlook were balanced. Policymakers also raised the inflation forecast for the two years, but expect underlying inflationary pressures to remain subdued.
In the U.S., the Labor Department data showed a bigger than expected increase in consumer prices in the month of May. The data said the U.S. consumer price index rose by 0.6% in May after climbing by 0.8% in April. Economists had expected consumer prices to increase by 0.4%.
Market Analysis
Swiss Market Ends Higher For 8th Straight Day
2021-06-10 18:01:18
