Swiss Market Ends On Upbeat Note

(RTTNews) - Swiss stocks closed on an upbeat note on Monday with investors reacting to an announcement from the White House that tariffs on imports of Chinese-made smartphones and some other electronics devices would not apply.

However, the rollback may end up being short-lived as President Donald Trump said these goods were simply being moved into a different tariff group or "bucket".

The benchmark SMI settled with a strong gain of 259.63 points or 2.31% at 11,499.46. The index touched a high of 11,552.98.

Logitech International climbed 6.6%. VAT Group, Partners Group, Roche Holding, Adecco and Novartis gained 3 to 3.5%.

Sandoz Group shares climbed nearly 3.5% after the company filed an antitrust lawsuit in the US against biotechnology company Amgen, accusing the latter of blocking competition from cost-effective biosimilar competitors for its Enbrel drug, including the Swiss pharmaceutical company's Erelzi, by using patent rights

UBS Group gained nearly 3%. SIG Group, Swiss Re and ABB climbed about 2.8%. Holcim, Kuehne + Nagel, Alcon and Sika closed higher by 2.4 to 2.6%.

Zurich Insurance, Straumann Holding, Swatch Group, Geberit, Swiss Life Holding, Lindt & Spruengli, Sonova, Schindler Ps, Lonza Group, Swisscom and Nestle also posted strong gains.

Clariant surged 3.75% on reports the specialty chemicals group is in talks with investment banks to explore strategies that could better align its valuation with business performance.

In economic news, Switzerland's producer and import prices continued to decline in March, though slightly, data from the Federal Statistical Office showed.

Producer and import prices dropped 0.1% year-on-year in March, the same pace as in the previous month. The price index has been falling since May 2023.

The producer price index showed an increase of 0.3%, while import prices dropped by 0.9%.

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