The Swiss Stock Exchange started Thursday’s session higher, the day after the status quo on the rates of the American Federal Reserve (Fed) and a public holiday. Investors were focused on Swisscom’s quarterly results and a series of macroeconomic data, including inflation in April in Switzerland.
The New York Stock Exchange ended up divided on Wednesday evening, after an initial positive reaction to the words of the Fed which, although it sees little recent progress in reducing inflation, rules out a future rate hike.
The American central bank kept its interest rates unchanged at the end of its last meeting, citing the recent “lack of progress” on the inflation front, but announced that it will deflate the rate more slowly. volume of assets on its balance sheet from June. It left its rates at the highest in more than 20 years, between 5.25% and 5.50%, a range within which they have been moving since July.
The Fed’s announcements were “unsurprising, with no economist expecting a movement on interest rates,” commented John Plassard of Mirabaud Banque. According to the expert, “the ‘wait and see’ mode was in the spotlight last night.”
In Switzerland, consumer prices experienced a further surge of 1.4% in April, after a pause observed in March. On a monthly basis, prices increased by 0.3% last month.
On the Swiss Stock Exchange shortly before 9:10 a.m., the flagship SMI index rose 0.32% to 11,299.30 points, after closing Tuesday down 0.63%. The SLI gained 0.38% to 1846.11 points and the SPI gained 0.25% to 15,105.08 points.
The majority of star stocks were rising, led by Julius Bär (+3.8%), Lonza (+1.4%) and Sandoz Group (+0.7%). The Zurich asset manager and the Basel supplier to the pharmaceutical industry both benefited from an increase in their price target by Citigroup.
Swisscom (-1.9%) reversed the positive pre-market trend. Despite falling sales, the blue giant increased its net profit in the 1st quarter. The number one Swiss telecoms company, which announces an appeal before the Federal Administrative Court (TAF) against the decision of the Competition Commission (Comco) concerning the implementation of its fiber optic network, generated a net result of 455 million francs (+2.9%).
VAT Group (-0.9%) and Givaudan (-0.9%) also gave up their gains. (AWP)
#Swiss
