Swiss Market Ends Marginally Up

(RTTNews) - Despite languishing in negative territory till about an hour before the closing bell, the Switzerland market ended slightly up on Monday with a few top stocks finding some support in the final minutes ot the day's session.

The benchmark SMI ended with a gain of 14.89 points or 0.12% at 12,451.48. The index touched a low of 12,367.29 in the session.

Swisscom gained 1.21%. Zurich Insurance Group ended nearly 1% up. VAT Group, Lindt & Spruengli, ABB, Schindler Ps, Novartis, Kuehne + Nagel, Holcim and Geberit advanced 0.4 to 0.75%.

Sandoz Group, Straumann Holding, SIG Group and Lonza Group ended down 1.2 to 1.47%.

Julius Baer drifted down 0.81%, while Swatch Group, Logitech International, SGS, Nestle and Sonova ended down 0.4 to 0.6%.

In economic news, retail sales in Switzerland unexpectedly grew 2.7% year-on-year in July 2024, easily beating market forecasts of a 0.2 % fall, and recovering from an upwardly revised revised 2.6% drop in June, data from the Federal Statistical Office showed. It marked the first increase in retail sales since April and the fastest pace since February 2022.

Compared to the previous month, retail sales unexpectedly rose 1.4% in July, the most in 13 months, rebounding from an upwardly revised 0.3% fall in June.

The Swiss procure.ch and Credit Suisse Manufacturing PMI rose to 49 in August 2024, compared to the previous month's and market estimates of 43.5. This marked the 20th consecutive period of contraction, although the softest since January 2023.