Swiss Market Ends Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - After an early plunge, the Switzerland stock market rallied smartly into positive territory Friday morning, but faltered into the red after moving along the flat line for about a couple of hours.

The market eventually ended in the red with several stocks drifting lower as the mood remained bearish amid rising concerns over inflation, and on surging yields on U.S. Treasuries.

The benchmark SMI ended with a loss of 136.65 points or 1.28% at 10,522.22, slightly off the day's low. The index touched a high of 10,686.02 a little before noon.

UBS Group, SGS, LafargeHolcim, ABB, Swisscom, Sika and Zurich Insurance Group lost 2 to 2.7%. Alcon, Swiss Re and Geberit ended nearly 2% down.

Swiss Life Holding, Lonza Group, Credit Suisse and Givaudan lost 1.6 to 1.85%, while Nestle and Novartis ended lower by 1.25% and 1.1%, respectively.

Swatch Group and Roche Holding, up 0.6% and 0.3%, respectively, were the only gainers in the SMI index.

In the Midcap section, PSP Swiss Property, Barry Callebaut, Schindler Holding, Swiss Prime Site, Straumann Holding, Adecco, Temenos Group, BB Biotech and Lindt & Spruengli ended lower by 2.5 to 3.6%. Dufry, up 1.3%, had another good session.

In economic news, Switzerland's economic growth eased sharply in the fourth quarter as the restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus pandemic weighed heavily on the service sector, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, or SECO, said Friday.

Gross domestic product gained 0.3% sequentially, much slower than the 7.6% expansion seen in the third quarter. GDP was forecast to climb 0.1%. On a yearly basis, GDP dropped 1.6%, following a 1.4% decrease in the third quarter. However, this was slower than the 2.1% decrease economists' had forecast.

A measure signaling turning points in Switzerland's economy rose above its long-term average in February, suggesting economic activity is set to pick up in the months ahead.

The Economic Barometer rose to 102.7 points in February, which is slightly above its long-?term average of 100, from 96.5 in January, the think tank KOF said Friday. Economists had expected a modest increase to 96.6.

The KOF attributed the strong increase mainly to the improvement in the service sector indicators.