Zurich (awp) – The Swiss stock market was moving sideways in the red late Friday morning, in concert with its European counterparts and despite the resistance of its three champions. The flagship index of the Zurich market even moved away from the bar of 12,100 points, briefly hanging in the first exchanges.
“Brokers are still struggling to assimilate the recent developments in the United States, torn between a reassuring consumer price index and a nagging aggressive refrain from the Federal Reserve (Fed), tending to blur the clarity of the future evolution of rates of interest”, notes Pierre Veyret, for Activtrades.
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%.
Inflation accelerated somewhat in France in May, when the strength of transalpine exports enabled Italy to achieve a trade surplus in April.
The day promises to be calm in our latitudes, the economic calendars and those of listed companies being practically empty of any entry.
At 11:05 a.m., the Swiss Market Index (SMI) fell 0.09% to 12,085.01 points, the Swiss Leader Index (SLI) 0.16% to 1,960.12 points and the Swiss Performance Index (SPI) 0.05 % at 160,060.51 points. Of the thirty main valuations, only five remained afloat, including the three heavyweights of the rating.
Good and carrier Roche led the way, both gaining 1.0%. The multinational in the blue hexagon visibly benefited from the raising of its price target by Bernstein.
The food liner Nestlé (+0.5%) ignored apparent concerns with its Perrier brand. The other pharmaceutical giant Novartis gained 0.2%. The biochemist Lonza (+0.8%) mingled with the behemoths, given confidence by an increase in the price target also extrapolated by Bernstein.
At the other end of the spectrum, luxury brand manager Richemont lost 2.2%, without any particular indication. Financials were also struggling, like Partners Group and UBS (-1.2% each), Swiss Life (-1.1%), Swiss Re (+0.8%) and Julius Bär (- 0.7%). Zurich Insurance (-0.4%) fared comparatively less badly, which brought forward to June 17 the date for the launch of its next share buyback program, endowed with 1.1 billion Swiss francs.
On the broader market, Molecular Partners soared by another 13%, after gaining more than 20% in early trading. The laboratory has claimed preclinical success in mice. Idorsia took 4.3%, the day after its general meeting.
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