The Swiss stock market closed positively on Monday, with several leading shares seeing sustained buying. This upward trend is largely due to the confidence in predicted earnings and the expectation that central banks will begin lowering interest rates from the first quarter of this year.
Investors are also keeping an eye out for data on Swiss consumer price inflation for January, which is to be released on Tuesday. Back in December, Switzerland’s annual inflation rate grew from 1.4% in the preceding month to 1.7% in December 2023.
Monday’s trading session saw the benchmark SMI fluctuating narrowly between 11,117.40 and 11,184.14 before finally closing with a gain of 0.79%, or 87.72 points, at 11,179.30.
Several frontrunners saw notable growth; Geberit rallied 3.31% and Sika 3.06%. Other big gainers included Holcim, Nestle, Partners Group, Swiss Life Holding and Roche Holding, all of which saw an increase between 1.1 and 1.5%. UBS Group also managed to gain nearly 1%. Meanwhile, other companies like ABB, Richemont, Swiss RE, Zurich Insurance Group, and Lonza Group also made moderate gains.
There were, however, a few losses. Kuehne & Nagel and Novartis, for instance, ended 0.81% and 0.71% lower, respectively. Swisscom also saw a slight decrease.
In terms of the Mid Price Index, ams OSRAM AG saw the biggest rise of 4.64%. Other companies that closed positively include Belimo Holding, Swatch Group, Avolta, Adecco, SIG Combibloc, and Baloise Holding which had increases in the range of 2.1 to 2.5%. Other organizations that also ended the session with commendable gains include Clariant, Tecan Group, Julius Baer, Helvetia, Georg Fischer, and Straumann Holding.
However, Ems Chemie Holding, Temenos Group, and VAT Group experienced decreases- their shares ended down by 1.26%, 0.74%, and 0.7%, respectively. Meyer Burger Tech, Flughafen Zurich, and Sandoz also ended the day slightly down.
