Zurich (awp) – The Swiss Stock Exchange closed the first session of the week in the Russian hills in the red, at the start of a week marked by European central banks. Although wind changes were frequent, the swell remained manageable.
Swiss indices had offered an initial positive reaction to commitments from the Chinese authorities to ease the country’s monetary policy in 2025, to revitalize the growth of the Middle Kingdom, before experiencing a slump in mid-2025. -day, then a short-lived rebound in the afternoon.
Still in China, consumer prices continued to slow down, increasing by only 0.2% in November year-on-year, compared to 0.3% in October.
Chasing their brakes while awaiting the monetary policy meetings of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and its European counterpart (ECB) on Thursday, investors are already eyeing Wednesday and the publication of the PCI inflation statement in November in UNITED STATES. Consumer prices across the Atlantic “are the last important data before Christmas, if not for the whole of 2024”, underlined Jochen Stanzl, analyst at CMC Markets, in a commentary.
“The market expects a cut of 25 basis points from the SNB, but we think that a cut of 50 basis points is entirely possible, even necessary,” anticipates Geoff Yu, strategist at Bank of New York Mellon. The expert recalls in passing that the new boss of the issuing institute in no way considers the use of negative rates as a taboo.
Concerning the ECB also, the writers tend to agree on a cut of 25 basis points.
At the close, the Swiss Market Index (SMI) had lost 0.16% to 11,761.72 points and the Swiss Leader Index (SLI) 0.14% to 1945.73 points. Of the thirty main components, 18 lost ground, SIG Group finished in balance and eleven gained ground. The Swiss Performance Index (SPI) lost 0.16% to 15,66916 points.
Luxury stocks Swatch (+2.7%) and Richemont (+2.1%) completed their runaway, ostensibly boosted by recovery projects in China. RBC analysts lowered the price target for the two watch groups, but confirmed their recommendation to “sector perform”.
Human resources behemoth Adecco (+1.8%) took third place on the podium, ahead of dental implant specialist Straumann (+1.5%).
ABB (-0.1%) ultimately benefited little from an increase in recommendation to “equal weight”, from “underweight” previously announced by Morgan Stanley. The latter also raised the price target of the engineering group. The Zurich giant also announced that it would take a minority stake in the Austrian software supplier Engineering Software Steyr (ESS). An order was won in Canada.
Pharmaceutical heavyweights Novartis (-0.5%) and Roche (good +0.1%) ended up dispersed. The latter confirmed the effectiveness of the drug Polivy for the treatment of the aggressive form of lymphoma, according to the results of a study carried out over five years.
Novartis, meanwhile, presented positive long-term data for the drug Scemblix, intended for adult patients newly diagnosed with Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myelogenous leukemia.
The largest Swiss capitalization Nestlé (-0.2%) further limited the drift.
At the bottom of the index, the concrete giant Holcim (1.6%) inherited the dunce cap, behind the verniolan chemist Givaudan (-1.2%) and the pharmaceutical subcontractor Sandoz (-1.1% )
On the broader market, Baloise (-0.6%) proposed the election of Vincent Vandendael, André Helfenstein and Robert Schuchna as new members of its board of directors.
Meyer Burger saw the rest of its valuation more than double. The photovoltaic cell manufacturer announced Friday evening that it had obtained bridging financing of 39.48 million Swiss francs intended to stabilize the company in great difficulty. To benefit from this sum, the Oberland group will, however, have to convince an important lost customer to put their trust in it again.
The Lucerne steelmaker Swiss Steel (+94%), in difficulty, also saw its valuation shaken up, notwithstanding a lack of specific news.
Cicor (-0.7%) further reduced its losses. The electronic components manufacturer announced that its majority shareholder One Equity Partners (OEP) has published the announcement prior to a mandatory offer for all Cicor shares held by the public. This is 55.17 Swiss francs per share, which represents the minimum price, 7.12% lower than the last closing price on the Swiss Stock Exchange.
DocMorris (-8.1%) was also losing weight. ZKB analysts lowered the stock’s recommendation to “weight”, from “overweight” previously.
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