Swiss Market Ends Notably Lower

Save for a few minutes at the start, the market remained in negative territory on Friday as investors chose to take profits, cashing in recent gains.

The benchmark SMI ended down 105.48 points or 0.97% at 10,755.47.

Roche Holding declined 2.4% on weak results. The company reported a marginal 1% increase in total sales at CHF 15.4 billion in the fourth quarter,compared to the year-ago quarter.

Sales were down 5% in 2020 due to the negative impact of the pandemic. Earnings per share came in at CHF 19.16 in 2020, down from CHF 20.16 in 2019.

Swisscom, Nestle, Lonza Group and Geberit lost 1.1 to 1.7%. Partners Group, Alcon, Sika, SGS and ABB ended lower by 0.7 to 0.9%.

Swatch Group moved up 1.55%, while Richemont and LafargeHolcim gained 0.6% and 0.55%, respectively.

In the midcap section, Vifor Pharma and Temenos Group lost 2.5% and 2.28%, respectively. Clariant and Tecan Group ended lower by 1.48% and 1.38%, respectively.

OC Oerlikon Corp, Dufry, Sonova, PSP Swiss Property and Galenica Sante lost 0.9 to 1.1%. Julius Baer, Helvetia and Georg Fischer ended marginally down.

AMS rallied 5.75% and BB Biotech gained nearly 1.5%, while Cembra Money Bank, Logitech and Lindt & Spruengli advanced 0.9 to 1%.

Other major markets in Europe ended on mixed note, despite spending much of the day’s session in positive territory. Optimism about additional fiscal stimulus in the U.S., and hopes about coronavirus vaccination drive gathering momentum pushed up stocks prices but profit taking wiped off gains towards the end of the session.