Despite spending much of the day's session in the red, the Switzerland stock market managed to end slightly higher on Tuesday as stocks found support by mid-afternoon, allowing the market to climb past the flat line in the final hour.
The benchmark SMI concluded with a gain of 15.99 points, or 0.14%, closing at 11,784.07. The index experienced an intraday low of 11,697.77 and a high of 11,791.70.
Alcon led the gainers in the SMI index with a notable climb of 7.53%. Sonova surged by nearly 7%, while Logitech International saw an increase of around 3%.
SIG Group finished 1.79% higher, while Richemont, Julius Baer, Swatch Group, and Partners Group rose between 1% and 1.26%.
Moderate gains were observed in Geberit, Lindt & Sprüngli, UBS Group, Schindler, and Novartis.
Conversely, Lonza Group, Roche Holdings, and Swiss Re ended the session lower by 1.74%, 1.61%, and 1.38%, respectively. Sandoz Group, Givaudan, Swisscom, Zurich Insurance Group, and VAT Group also closed in the negative.
On the economic front, data from the Federal Statistical Office revealed that Switzerland's producer and import prices increased by 0.6% month-over-month in April, following a 0.1% rise in the prior month. This uptick was primarily driven by higher prices for petroleum products and watches.
Year-on-year, Switzerland's producer and import prices decreased by 1.8% in April, which was an improvement from the 2.1% drop seen in the previous month.
