Swiss Market Ends Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - After a strong start, the Switzerland stock market kept paring gains as the session progressed on Wednesday, but still managed to sign off on a positive note as select frontline stocks managed to find support.

A firm trend across European markets and on Wall Street helped underpin sentiment.

The benchmark SMI ended up by 21.68 points or 0.17% at 12,432.79, nearly 60 points off the session's high of 12,491.18.

Richemont climbed 2.3%. Swatch Group gained about 1.5%, while Swiss Life Holding and Alcon gained 1.26% and 1.1%, respectively.

Givaudan, Sika, Swisscome, Roche Holding and Novartis closed modestly lower.

In the Mid Price Index, Cembra Money Bank, Temenos Group, Adecco, Julius Baer, Dufry and Flughafen Zurich gained 2 to 2.7%.

Logitech, Baloise Holding, Sonova, Straumann Holding, VAT Group, AMS and OC Oerlikon Corp also closed notably higher.

The Swiss government has decided not to tighten curbs on public life for now despite a surge in coronavirus cases.

The government, which last week had asked people to show a COVID-status certificate to access many indoor spaces, said today that the cabinet has not yet decided on widening use of certificates, as the number of hospital admissions of coronavirus patients has not increased in the last week.

In economic news, the procure.ch and Credit Suisse Manufacturing PMI for Switzerland fell to 67.7 in August from a record high of 71.1 in July, and better than forecasts of 67.3.