The Switzerland market concluded on a solid note on Thursday. Most of the gains were witnessed in late afternoon trade due to substantial buying in numerous areas.
Switzerland's cooler-than-expected inflation data along with optimism about potential interest rate cuts from major central banks during this quarter contributed to boosting the market sentiment.
The benchmark SMI concluded with an uplift of 74.26 points or 0.64% at 11,691.13 which is slightly lower than the day's recorded high of 11,693.57.
Companies such as Novartis saw a rise of 2.84%, while UBS Group and Sika witnessed an increase of 1.89% and 1.86% respectively. Alcon experienced a growth of 1.57%, whereas companies like Lonza Group, Partners Group, ABB and Swisscom grew between 0.8 to 1%. Nestle also advanced by 0.57%.
However, Givaudan saw a fall of nearly 2.5%. Swiss Life Holding ended down by 1.24%, while companies like Logitech International, Holcim and Geberit experienced a drop between 0.9 to 1.1%. Swiss Re and Roche Holding also ended notably lower.
In the Mid Price Index, companies like Ems Chemie Holding experienced growth with an increase of 1.86%, while companies like Julius Baer, Avolta, BKW and Temenos Group ended higher by 1.4 to 1.7%, and ams OSRAM AG and Swatch Group both gained around 1.25%.
Meyer Burger Tech saw a significant drop of more than 5%. Sandoz ended almost 2% down with Schindler Holding, Lindt & Spruengli and Tecan Group losing between 1 to 1.2%.
Data from the Federal Statistical Office showed that Swiss consumer price inflation unexpectedly fell to its lowest since September 2021. As per reports, consumer prices recorded an annual increase of 1% in March, following a 1.2% rise in February. This increase was lower than the economic forecast of 1.3%. On a monthly basis, the consumer price index remained the same.
The core consumer prices observed a gain of 0.1% in March and experienced a 1% rise from the same period in the previous year.
Due to the soft inflation data, there is increased hope that the Swiss National Bank (SNB) will implement another interest rate cut this year. In March, SNB unexpectedly reduced the policy rate by 25 basis points to 1.5%.
