Swiss Market Pares Early Gains, Ends Just Marginally Up

(RTTNews) - After opening on a firm note and holding in positive territory till about an hour past noon on Wednesday, the Switzerland stock market pared gains but managed to find some support to eventually close marginally up.

Data showing a drop in Swiss investor sentiment in May and forecast that the economy will see a slowdown over the next six months weighed on sentiment.

The benchmark SMI, which advanced to 11,576.56 in early trades, ended the session with a gain of 8.24 points or 0.07% at 11,491.80.

Richemont climbed nearly 2%. Holcim gained about 1.3% and Swiss Life Holding gained 1.1%, while Logitech, Partners Group, Geberit, Roche Holding and Zurich Insurance Group ended higher by 0.4 to 0.8%.

Givaudan ended lower by about 1.7% and Lonza Group weakened by 1.3%. Alcon and Sika lost 1% and 0.8%, respectively.

In the Mid Price Index, Zur Rose rallied 3.5% and Dufry gained nearly 3%. Georg Fischer and Flughafen Zurich climbed 2.53% and 2.4%, respectively. Schindler Holding, Baloise Holding and Schindler Ps gained 1.1 to 1.4%.

Temenos Group declined 2.8% and Straumannn Holding shed about 2.1%. Lindt & Spruengli, AMS and VAT Group shed 1.2 to 1.3%, while Sonova ended 0.8% down.

A report from the Credit Suisse & CFA Society Switzerland showed the Swiss investor sentiment index decreased by 1 point to -52.6 in May of 2022 from -51.6 in the previous month. That was the lowest since February 2015.

The report also said the current conditions index declined to 26.3 from 38.7 in April. 58% of the Swiss financial analysts surveyed forecast an economic slowdown over the next six months, probably on account of the war in Ukraine, the lockdowns in China and monetary policy tightening across the world.