Despite struggling for direction till around mid afternoon, the Switzerland market managed to find some momentum during the final hour of the session on Monday to settle marginally up in positive territory.
The benchmark SMI ended with a gain of 14.60 points or 0.13% at 11,135.87, after scaling a low of 11,084.52 and a high of 11,163.99 intraday.
Swatch Group gained 1.3%. Credit Suisse, Givaudan, Nestle and UBS Group moved up 0.6 to 0.8%. Swiss Life Holding, Sika, Roche Holding and Swisscom also closed higher.
Partners Group shed 1.65%. ABB ended nearly 1% down, while Novartis, Zurich Insurance Group and Swiss Re ended modestly lower.
Among the stocks in the Swiss Mid Price Index, Sonova climbed more than 2%. Logitech, Kuehne & Nagel and Tecan Group ended stronger by 1 to 1.3%, while Lindt & Spruengli and Cembra Money Bank posted modest gains.
AMS, OC Oerlikon Corp and Galenica Sante shed 1.3 to 1.7%, and Flughafen Zurich ended nearly 1% down. Schindler Holding and VAT Group also closed notably lower.
In economic news, data from the Federal Statistical Office showed Switzerland’s producer and import prices increased in April, rising by 1.8% year-on-year.
The producer price index increased 0.7% annually in April and import prices accelerated 4.1%.
On a monthly basis, producer and import prices increased 0.7% in April. Domestic sale prices grew 1.6% yearly in April and declined 0.7% from a month ago, the data showed.
In coronavirus-related news, it is learnt that the Swiss government will decide on May 26 about easing restrictions further at the end of the month. If conditions permit, Switzerland would then emerge from a “protection phase” and enter a “stabilisation phase”, ministers had last week.
Meanwhile, vaccination roll-out in the country is reportedly continuing to accelerate with over 70,000 jabs being administered a day.
Swiss Market Ends Marginally Up
2021-05-17 18:35:57
