Swiss Market Ends Slightly Up
(RTTNews) - The Switzerland stock market ended marginally up, recovering in the final hour of the session after languishing in the red right from the start as investors stayed cautious, looking ahead to the central bank's policy meeting on Thursday.
Several central banks, including the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, are scheduled to announce their interest rate decisions this week.
The Swiss National Bank hiked its policy rate by 50 basis points to -0.25% in its June 2022 meeting, surprising markets that expected the interest rate to be held constant. The bank also signaled further rate increases in coming meetings. The rate hike in June was the first since 2007. The bank kept its policy rate at -0.75% since 2015.
The benchmark SMI, which dropped to a low of 10,520.90 around noon, rallied to 10,645.39 in the final hour before settling at 10,617.01, gaining 6.36 points or 0.06%.
Sonova climbed about 2.7%. Sika gained 1.83% and Richemont surged 1.4%. Nestle and Zurich Insurance Group ended higher by 0.95% and 0.84%, respectively.
Lonza Group drifted down 2.4%. Roche Holding shed about 1.35% despite the European Commission approving its Vabysmo to treat vision loss.
Swiss Re shed 1.1%, while Swisscom and Swiss Life Holding also ended weak.
In the Mid Price Index, Swatch Group gained more than 2%. Ems Chemie Holding and Kuehne Nagel gained 1.4% and 1.3%, respectively. Straumann Holding and Dufry both ended nearly 1% up.
Bachem Holding tumbled 6.5%. SIG Combibloc shed 4.45%, while SGS and PSP Swiss Property bogh lost around 2.7%.
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