The Swiss stock market suppressed early hopes of a rebound from the first trades on Friday. The indices returned to the cellar less than half an hour after opening in the green, notwithstanding remarkable resistance from pharmaceutical heavyweights.
On the economic front, the Bank of Japan indicated overnight that it would reduce its massive purchases of indigenous public bonds, without commenting for the moment on the extent of the measure or adjusting its key rate, maintained since March between 0.0% and 0.1%.
The day promises to be calm in our latitudes, the economic calendars and those of listed companies being practically empty of any entry.
Pharmaceutical companies supporting SMI
At 9:15 a.m., the Swiss Market Index (SMI) fell 0.09% to 12,085.01 points, the Swiss Leader Index (SLI) 0.16% to 1960.12 points and the Swiss Performance Index (SPI) 0.05% to 160,060.51 points. Of the thirty main valuations, only five are still adorned with green, while three orbited around the starting point.
The pharmaceutical heavyweights attenuated the decline, Novartis gaining 0.3% while the good Roche grabbed 0.2% and the homonymous carrier 0.7%. The multinational in the blue hexagon visibly benefited from the raising of its price target by Bernstein.
Benefiting from the same treatment, the pharmaceutical industry subcontractor Lonza (+1.0) was at the top of the index.
Zurich Insurance (unchanged) has brought forward to June 17 the date for the launch of its next share buyback program, worth 1.1 billion francs.
On the broader market, Molecular Partners soared 21%, after claiming preclinical success in mice. Idorsia took 4.6%, the day after its general meeting. (awp)
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