Swiss Market Ends On Weak Note

(RTTNews) - The Switzerland stock market, which opened marginally down Friday morning, kept sliding lower as the session progressed, and despite staging a recovery of sorts in the final hour, ended the session on a weak note.

The benchmark SMI ended down by 72.46 points or 0.6% at 12,104.44, after scaling a high of 12,166.87 and a low of 11,958.69 intraday.

Givaudan shares tumbled more than 6.5%. ABB declined 4.2%, while UBS Group and Credit Suisse ended lower by 1.6% and 1.4%, respectively. Zurich Insurance Group shed 1.14% and Sika ended 1.05% down.

Richemont, Alcon, Swiss Life Holding and Swiss Re ended lower by 0.6 to 1%.

Holcim shares ended 0.4% down. Holcim announced that it has partnered with Eni to advance its carbon capture portfolio. The partnership is in line with Holcim's net-zero journey as well as Eni's commitment to decarbonize its sector.

Holcim said the new partnership adds to its Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage portfolio, with over thirty projects across the US, Canada and Europe.

Lonza Group climbed 2.54%. SGS ended stronger by 1.87%, while Logitech, Swisscom and Geberit gained 0.4 to 0.75%.

Among the stocks in the Mid Price Index, Swatch Group declined more than 4%. Dufry, Georg Fischer and Adecco ended lower by 2.2 to 2.5%. Flughafen Zurich, OC Oerlikon Corp, Zur Rose, BB Biotech, Julius Baer, Clariant, Helvetia and VAT Group lost 1 to 1.75%.

Lindt & Spruengli Part, Tecan Group and Lindt & Spruengli N gained 1.9 to 2.3%. Galenica Sante ended nearly 1% up. Temenos Group, SIG Combibloc and Sonova gained 0.75 to 0.9%.

On the economic front, a leading indicator of turning points in Switzerland's economy rose unexpectedly in January, for the first time in eight months, signaling a favorable outlook, results of a closely-watched survey showed Friday.

The economic barometer rose to a three-month high of 107.8 from 107.2 in December, which was revised from 107.0, results of the monthly survey by the KOF Swiss Economic Institute showed. Economists had expected the reading to drop further to 106.3.

The increase was the first since May last year. The reading remained above its long-term average of 100.

"Presently, the economic outlook is above average, although the omicron wave could still have a negative impact," the Zürich-based think tank said.