Swiss Market Ends Marginally Lower

(RTTNews) - The Switzerland stock market ended marginally down on Friday, despite most of the markets in Europe rebounding from recent losses and closing higher.

The market spent most part of the day's session in positive territory. After opening on a firm note, it pared gains and slipped into rhe red a little past noon, and despite rallying smartly by mid afternoon, faltered in the closing minutes to register a marginal loss.

The benchmark SMI ended down 12.96 points or 0.12% at 10,704.75, the day's low, after scaling a high of 10,773.77.

Roche Holding, Lonza Group and Nestle lost more than 1%. Novartis ended nearly 1% down, while SGS and Givaudan ended with modest losses.

Swiss Re edged down marginally. The group said it posted a net loss of $878 million for fiscal year 2020.

ABB and Credit Suisse gained 2.5% and 2.4%, respectively. Swiss Life Holding moved up 2%, while Richemont, LafargeHolcim and Swatch Group gained 1.6 to 1.8%, while UBS Group and Geberit gained 1.2% and 1%, respectively.

Among the stocks in the Swiss Mid Price Index, Cembra Money Bank ended nearly 2% down, while Lindt & Spruengli, Galenica Sante and Lindt & Spruengli lost 0.4 to 0.7%.

Dufry, Temenos Group and VAT Group gained 4.2 to 4.4% and OC Oerlikon Corp ended nearly 3.5% up. Georg Fischer, Clariant, AMS, Schindler Ps and Straumann Holding also rose sharply.

On the economic front, Switzerland's industrial production declined 3.8% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2020, data from the Federal Statistical Office showed.

Secondary sector production declined 3.1% yearly in the fourth quarter, while construction output rose 0.2%.

Data showed that industrial turnover decreased 5.5% yearly in the fourth quarter, while construction turnover rose by 0.1%.

In December, industrial production decreased 1%, following a 3.1% fall in November. Industrial turnover fell 3.2% year-on-year in December, following a 5.2% decline in the previous month.

In 2020, industrial production declined 3.3% and turnover contracted 5.2%, the data showed.