Swiss Market Ends Modestly Lower After Choppy Session

(RTTNews) - The Switzerland market ended modestly lower on Thursday after a choppy session, as the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and other countries including Canada, China and the EU nations weighed on investor sentiment.

Today, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 200% tariff on wines, champagnes and alcoholic products imported into the U.S. from France and other countries in the European Union.

Trump's threat follows the imposition of 50% tariff on American whiskey by the European Union, as a counter measure to previous levies announced by the U.S.

The benchmark SMI closed down 32.24 points or 0.25% at 12,836.19, after scaling a low of 12,790.12 and a high of 12,927.71 intraday.

ABB ended down 2.41%. Straumann Holding declined nearly 2%. Sandoz Group, Alcon, Swatch Group, Roche Holding and Lindt & Spruengli lost 1.1 to 1.7%.

Adecco, Sonova, Holcim, Partners Group, Sika and Logitech International ended down 0.4 to 1%.

Shares of online pharmacy company DocMorris tanked nearly 29%. The stock tumbled as the company swung to a net loss of 97.3 million francs in 2024 from a net income of 82.3 million francs a year before.

Geberit climbed 1.11%. Swiss Life Holding, Richemont, Novartis, Zurich Insurance Group, Schindler Ps and SGS gained 0.4 to 0.8%.

Data from the Federal Statistical Office showed Switzerland's producer and import prices continued to decline in February, though slightly.

Producer and import prices dropped 0.1% year-on-year in February, following a 0.3% decrease in January. Further, this was the slowest rate of decline since the current sequence of fall began in May 2023.

The producer price index showed an increase of 0.2%, while import prices dropped by 0.8%.

On a monthly basis, producer and import prices rose 0.3% in February after rising 0.1% in the prior month. The expected increase was 0.2%.