Swiss stocks fell sharply on Thursday, tracking weakness in global markets amid mounting worries about inflation, economic slowdown and looming interest rate hikes by the central banks.
The benchmark SMI, which plunged to 11,233.72, ended with a loss of 269.65 points or 2.33% at 11,309.49.
For the second consecutive day, all the components of the SMI index closed in negative territory.
Nestle lost more than 5%. Zurich Insurance Group drifted down 4.1%. Swiss Re ended 3.5% down following a rating downgrade by Fitch. Swiss Life Holding also closed lower by about 3.5%.
Sika and Partners Group lost 2.64% and 2.56%, respectively. Logitech, Geberit, Alcon, Swisscom, Credit Suisse, ABB, Novartis, SGS and UBS Group ended down 1.3 to 2.1%.
Among the stocks in the Mid Price Index, Julius Baer ended nearly 6% down. Julius Baer reported assets under management of 457 billion Swiss francs ($460 billion) for the first four months of the year, which was a decline of 5% from the end of last year.
Dufry shed 5.79%, while Barry Callebaut and Kuehne & Nagel closed lower by 4.3% and 4.1%, respectively.
Helvetia, Lindt & Spruengli, SIG Combibloc, Adecco, BB Biotech and VAT Group lost 3 to 4%.
Zur Rose climbed 5.8%. Bachem Holding surged up 3.2% and Tecan Group gained 2.7%. Temenos Group gained 2.4%, while Sonova advanced 1.35%.
Market Analysis
Swiss Stocks Close Sharply Lower
2022-05-19 17:19:59
