Swiss Market Settles Modestly Higher
(RTTNews) - Despite staying positive right through the day's session, Swiss stocks remained a bit sluggish on Thursday as investors largely refrained from making significant moves.
The benchmark SMI, which moved between 12,587.52 and 12,644.60, settled with a modest gain of 44.76 points or 0.36% at 12,624.20.
Julius Baer, Holcim, UBS Group and Swatch Group gained 3.4 to 4%. Sika, Adecco, Geberit and VAT Group closed higher by 2.1 to 2.75%.
Partners Group, SIG Group, Sandoz Group, Swisscom, ABB and Kuehne + Nagel advanced 1 to 1.7%.
Zurich Insurance Group, Lindt & Spruengli, Schindler Ps, Swiss Re and Swiss Life Holding also closed on firm note.
Roche Holding closed down by about 1.25%. Novartis, Sonova, Richemont and SGS lost 0.4 to 0.9%.
Temenos gained about 1.2% on news that it agreed to sell its Multifonds business to Montagu Private Equity for an enterprise value of $400 million.
Shares of finance and insurance company Leonteq AG tanked more than 11% on lower earnings. The company reported a year-over-year drop in 2024 group net profit to 5.8 million francs from 20.6 million francs.
Data from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, or SECA, said the unemployment rate in Switzerland rose to a non-seasonally adjusted 3% in January 2025 from 2.8% in the previous month, compared to market forecasts of 2.9%. This marked the highest jobless rate since May 2021.
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