The Switzerland stock market ended on a weak note on Wednesday, extending losses from the previous session, despite spending nearly a couple of hours in positive territory early on in the session.
The benchmark SMI ended with a loss of 45.57 points or 0.41% at 11,056.74, the day’s low. The index advanced to a high of 11,138.03 earlier in the day.
Roche Holding ended nearly 2% down. Logitech also shed almost 2%. Givaudan, Novartis, Swisscom and SGS ended lower by 1 to 1.3%, while Geberit shed nearly 1%.
Holcim rallied 4.5% on strong results. The building materials company said its first-half net income Group share climbed 38% to 1.16 billion Swiss francs from last year’s 839 million francs. Earnings per share reached 1.90 francs, up 39.7% from 1.36 francs a year ago.
Adjusted net income was 1.30 billion francs or 2.14 francs per share, compared to 881 million francs or 1.43 francs per share a year ago, Holcim said.
Richemont surged 1.7%, while Swiss Life Holding and Alcon moved up 0.9 to 1%.
Credit Suisse recovered from early weakness and closed modestly higher despite posting its third straight quarterly loss. The Swiss banking major announced that its second-quarter net loss attributable to shareholders was 1.59 billion Swiss francs, compared to net income of 253 million francs last year.
Pre-tax loss was 1.17 billion francs, compared to prior year’s pre-tax income of 813 million francs, the bank said. Adjusted pre-tax loss was 442 million francs, compared to income of 1.31 billion francs a year ago.
In the Swiss Mid Price Index, Galenica Sante plunged 6.7%. Lindt & Spreungli ended lower by 3% on profit taking. Tecan Group drifted down 2.75%, while PSP Swiss Property and Barry Callebaut lost 1.82% and 1.4%, respectively.
Zur Rose gained 4.3%. Temenos Group climbed nearly 4%, AMS firmed 2.6%, while Cembra Money Bank, Georg Fischer, VAT Group and Adecco gained 1.5 to 1.8%.
In economic news, a report from Credit Suisse & CFA Society Switzerland showed the Swiss Investor sentiment index increased by 15.5 points from the prior month to -57.2 in July of 2022, with financial analysts forecasting higher inflation but noting that there is only a limited risk of recession.
Meanwhile, the current conditions index fell by 4.3 points from the previous month to 10.8 in July, the report said.
Market Analysis
Swiss Market Ends Lower Again
2022-07-27 17:22:43
