Zurich (awp) – The Swiss Stock Exchange seemed less stuffy than its European and American counterparts at the opening on Friday, after the first round of end-of-year festivities. However, no economic indicator or company news likely to provide further impetus was on the agenda for the penultimate session of the year.
In New York, trading was marked by a low trading volume on the day after Christmas and in the run-up to the New Year. “Those who were glued to their screens, hoping for a visit from Santa Claus, were disappointed,” quips Ipek Ozkardeskaya of Swissquote. The main US indices saw little change, even after mixed US employment data, including unemployment claims which reached their highest level in more than three years, “a a sign that it takes more time to find a new job,” comments the analyst.
The Dow Jones gained 0.07% on Thursday evening, the Nasdaq index lost 0.05% and the broader S&P 500 index lost 0.04%. The European stock exchanges opened without direction, Frankfurt falling by 0.15%, London by 0.27% and Milan by 0.26% in the first exchanges, while Paris remained in balance. “Even bitcoin lost its gains and settled near the $96,000 level” at dawn.
Overall, investors, brokers and market watchers seemed to have deserted the marketplaces. No economic or corporate news is expected in Switzerland, while in the United States only data on wholesale stocks is expected in the afternoon.
Around 9:20 a.m. on the Swiss Stock Exchange, the flagship SMI index gained 0.16% to 11,506.01 points, after ending Monday, its last trading day before Christmas, with a gain of 0.91%. The SLI increased by 0.25% to 1905.05 points and the SPI by 0.27% to 15,366.19 points. Of the 30 star values, 21 were adorned with green and nine with red.
Adecco led the game (+1.5%) followed by Kühne+Nagel (+1.4%) and UBS (1.2%), not far from Julius Bär (+1.1%). The two banks saw their price target raised at the start of the week by the Royal Bank of Canada.
On the heavyweight side, Novartis (+0.3%) did a little better than Nestlé and Roche (+0.1% each) which flirted with balance. The Vevey food giant announced on Monday that it had completed its share buyback program for 20 billion Swiss francs.
The bottom of the table was occupied by the insurer Zurich Insurance (-0.7%) and the reinsurer Swiss Re (-0.5%), with no particular news apart from the fact that catastrophic forecasts on the climate front are increasing.
In the broader market, Relief Therapeutics jumped 10% after promising the signing of its merger contract with Renexxion by the first quarter of 2025.
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