Swiss Market Closes Slightly Up

(RTTNews) - Save for a few minutes early on in the session, and a brief while before the closing bell, the Swiss market languished in the red on Monday. Still, the benchmark SMI closed slightly up, with a few frontline stocks finding some good support.

The SMI, which dropped to a low of 11,644.53, closed with a gain of 7.08 points or 0.06% at 11,701.51.

Lonza Group rallied nearly 2.5%. Roche Holding gained about 1.25%. Partners Group, ABB, Sandoz Group, VAT Group and Alcon advanced 0.5 to 0.8%.

Swiss biopharma Basilea Pharmaceutica climbed 4.6% after it entered into an exclusive distribution and license agreement with Innoviva Specialty Therapeutics for the commercialization of Basilea's hospital anti-MRSA antibiotic Zevtera or ceftobiprole in the United States.

Swatch Group closed down 2.73%. Logitech International ended lower by about 2.1%. Nestle and Lindt & Spruengli both lost nearly 1%.

Holcim, Sika, Straumann Holding, Swiss Life Holding, Richemont, Swiss Re, SIG Group, Adecco and UBS Group lost 0.4 to 0.8%.

Data from the Federal Statistical Office said the producer and import prices in Switzerland dropped by 0.6% month-on-month in November, declining for the third straight month, following a 0.3% drop in September.

Producer and import prices decreased by 1.5% year-on-year in November, easing from a 1.8% drop in the previous month.