Swiss Market Extends Winning Streak To 10th Session

(RTTNews) - After hitting a fresh record high in early trades on Monday, the Switzerland stock market pared gains and briefly fell into negative territory around mid morning, but recovered to stay positive and ended the session with modest gains.

Optimism about global economic recovery thanks to acceleration in vaccination rollout and re-opening of businesses helped underpin sentiment.

The benchmark SMI ended with a gain of 25.11 points or 0.21% at 11,866.41, after hitting a new high of 11,895.54. With today's climb, the Swiss market has ended higher for a tenth consecutive session.

Alcon, Novartis, Partners Group and Geberit gained 0.5 to 0.82%. Lonza Group, Richemont, SGS, Swiss Re, Swisscom and Zurich Insurance Group also closed higher.

Swatch Group declined by 1.16%. Credit Suisse, Sika and Roche Holding ended marginally down.

Among the stocks in the Mid Price Index, VAT Group climbed 3.4%. Flughafen Zurich gained 2.5% and Ems Chemie Holding moved up 2.2%. Temenos Group, Sonova and Barry Callebaut gained 1.6 to 1.75%.

Adecco, SIG Combibloc, Julius Baer, AMS and Tecan Group also ended with strong gains, while Dufry, Clariant, Cembra Money Bank and Schindler Ps shed 0.7 to 1.05%.

On the economic front, data from the Federal Statistical Office showed Switzerland's producer and import prices increased in May, rising by 3.2% year-on-year.

The producer price index increased 1.6% annually in May and import prices accelerated 6.4%.

On a monthly basis, producer and import prices increased 0.8% in May.

Prices for chemical products, rubber and plastic products, basic metals, semi-finished metal products and pharmaceutical products were higher in May, the agency said.

Domestic sale prices grew 2.1% yearly in May and rose 0.3% from a month ago.