The Swiss stock market has seen a period of continued growth over five consecutive sessions, increasing by almost 300 points or 2.9 percent overall.
On Tuesday, after an unsteady start, the SMI, Switzerland's main index, ended the day slightly stronger. Its performance mirrored the trends in other major European markets which experienced gentle rises as investors balanced mixed regional data and anticipated the outcomes of this week’s pivotal meetings of the Federal Reserve and Bank of England.
At the end of the day, the index had risen by 13.30 points or 0.12 percent, finally closing at 11,443.13, after fluctuating between 11,420.15 and 11,473.57 over the course of the day.
Several market movers made significant strides, with Swiss Life climbing 1.37 percent, Compagnie Financiere Richemont rising 1.32 percent, and UBS Group advancing 1.29 percent. At the same time, Zurich Insurance stumbled 1.26 percent, ABB increased 0.97 percent, Adecco Group went up 0.79 percent, while Swisscom slipped 0.46 percent, Nestle declined 0.36 percent, Novartis fell 0.34 percent and Swiss Re dropped 0.18 percent.
Economically, Switzerland saw its foreign trade surplus grow in 2023 as a rebound in exports accompanied a drop in imports, according to the Federal Customs Administration's data released on Tuesday. There was a notable increase in trade surplus for 2023 at CHF 48.5 billion, an improvement from CHF 42.8 billion in 2022. On a granular level, there was a 2.5 percent annual rise in exports, contrasting the 0.7 percent decline from the previous year. Imports, on the other hand, fell by 2.0 percent over the year, a significant change from the 1.0 percent increase witnessed in 2022.
