After a flat start and a subsequently decent uptick, the Switzerland stock market briefly slipped into the red Friday morning, but managed to end the session marginally up despite swinging between gains and losses.
The mood was a bit cautious amid rising virus cases and lockdown extensions in several parts of Europe.
The benchmark SMI ended with a gain of 18 points or 0.16% at 11,116.81, after hitting a new 52-week high at 11,143.86.
The SMI ended with a gain of 34.94 points or 0.32% on Thursday, after losing about 0.3% a session earlier.
ABB, Partners Group, Credit Suisse and LafargeHolcim gained 1.2 to 1.7%. Shares of specialty chemicals company Sika gained about 1% after the firm said that it has acquired the flooring adhesives business of DriTac, a U.S.-based floor covering adhesives company with an especially strong position in wood floor bonding.
UBS Group and Geberit both ended higher by about 0.9%. Swiss Re, Swiss Life Holding, Zurich Insurance Group and Swisscom gained 0.5 to 0.7%.
SGS, Swatch Group and Roche Holding declined by 0.6 to 1%.
Among the stocks in the Swiss Mid Price Index, Logitech moved up by about 2.1%. Schindler Ps, Schindler Holding, Tecan Group, AMS and Baloise Holding gained 1 to 1.3%.
Swiss Prime Site, Kuehne & Nagel, Flughafen Zurich and Cembra Money Bank shed 0.5 to 1.1%.
In vaccine news, the number of Covid-19 vaccines administered in Switzerland from March has reportedly risen to an average of 23,807 a day, up 17% from last week.
Some 166,650 vaccine doses were given between March 18 and 24, according to the Federal Office of Public Health’s Covid-19 Switzerland website.
Swiss Market Ends Higher Again
2021-03-26 18:11:59
