Swiss Market Ends Higher For 3rd Straight Day

(RTTNews) - The Switzerland stock market closed on a firm note on Thursday, extending recent gains, amid easing worries about the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Separate studies have indicated the new strain poses a lower risk of severe disease and hospitalization than the Delta variant. However, the World Health Organization and some experts have cautioned that it is too early to draw conclusions on the Omicron variant's severity.

The benchmak SMI ended with a gain of 71.42 points or 0.56% at 12,785.32, after scaling a low of 12,695.59 and a high of 12,787.96 intraday.

ABB climbed 2.1%. Shares of Swiss building materials firm Holcim rallied 1.86% after the company said it has signed an agreement to acquire Malarkey Roofing Products, a company in the U.S. residential roofing market.

Credit Suisse and UBS Group moved up 1.85% and 1.61%, respectively. Swiss Re, SGS, Richemont, Alcon and Zurich Insurance Group gained 1 to 1.4%.

Swiss Life Holding, Geberit, Novartis and Partners Group ended higher by 0.8 to 1%.

Swisscom and Sika closed modestly higher, while Logitech and Roche Holding ended lower by 0.8% and 0.5%, respectively.

Among the stocks in the Swiss Mid Price Index, Dufry, Adecco, Schindler Holding, Schindler Ps and SIG Combibloc gained 2.2 to 2.8%. Julius Baer, Lindt & Spruengli, Helvetia and Sonova also ended notably higher.

Temenos Group ended nearly 1% up. AMS shed about 0.9%, while PSP Swiss Property and Tecan Group closed with modest losses.