Swiss Market Ends Modestly Lower Despite Some Late Buying

(RTTNews) - The Switzerland stock market, which opened notably lower Thursday morning and stayed in a tight range till a little past mid afternoon, staged a fairly good recovery thereafter but still ended the session on a negative note.

The undertone remained bearish, in line with markets across the globe, due to persisting worries about inflation and fears over further sharp interest rate hikes by central banks.

The benchmark SMI, which dropped to 11,288.02 around mid morning, rose to 11,548.93 later on in the day and finally ended the session with a loss of 47.53 points or 0.41% at 11,506.13.

Richemont and Roche Holding shed about 2.4% and 2.3%, respectively. Alcon, which ended with a hefty gain on Wednesday, ended lower by 1.8% on profit taking. Partners Group and UBS Group both ended lower by about 1.05%.

Givaudan and Zurich Insurance Group both gained about 1.5%. Swisscom, Geberit, Novartis and Lonza Group ended with modest gains.

Among the stocks in the Swiss Mid Price Index, Sonova drifted down 3.85%. Clariant, Julius Baer and Straumann Holding ended lower by 1.3 to 1.5%. Cembra Money Bank shed about 1%.

Zur Rose rallied 6.6%. Tecan Group gained 2.7%, Lindt & Spruengli climbed 2.4% and Kuehne & Nagel moved up 2%. Flughafen Zurich surged up 1.7% and Bachem Holding gained 1.2%.

On the economic front, Switzerland's producer and import prices rose in April, data from the Federal Statistical Office showed.

Producer and import prices increased 6.7% year-on-year in April. The producer price index rose 4.5% annually in April and import prices grew 11.3%.

On a monthly basis, producer and import prices rose 1.3% in April, the data said.