The Swiss stock market started the week on a positive note the day after the 1is round of the French legislative elections. As elsewhere, the market was reassured by the fact that the National Rally appears unable to obtain an absolute majority at the end of the second round, next Sunday.
In New York, Wall Street gained ground in the morning, digesting the results of the first round in France and before the data on American employment at the end of the week.
“If the National Rally wins the post of Prime Minister, for which Jordan Bardella has been tipped, it will be able to define a large part of the national agenda,” analyzed investment specialist John Plassard of Mirabaud Banque in a commentary. The result of the first round nevertheless suggests that the RN “may not have an absolute majority in the National Assembly (…) after the second round. For the markets, this is the ‘least worst’ scenario,” he stressed.
But for Swissquote analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya, “there is a significant risk that Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella will win the parliamentary majority by the end of the week.”
This first round of elections in France will in any case continue to shake up the markets, added Frank Sohlleder, an analyst at Activtrades. Political impulses will dictate the evolution of the markets in the coming days, with the legislative elections in the United Kingdom on Thursday. The polls predict a large victory for the Labour Party after 14 years of conservative rule.
In Germany, inflation started to fall again in June after the surge in May. A decline that comforts the European Central Bank (ECB) which began its cycle of rate cuts last month.
In Switzerland, retail sales declined in May after having increased significantly the previous month. Taking into account seasonal variations, they fell by 0.3% in nominal terms over the year. In real terms, i.e. taking into account inflation, they increased by 0.4%.
The SMI closed up 0.47% at 12,049.61 points, a high of 12,107.30 at the opening and a low of 12,022.16. The SLI gained 0.41% to 1,951.64 points and the SPI 0.44% to 15,989.43 points. Of the 30 leading stocks, 23 rose and 7 fell.
Sika (-0.8%) finished last, behind VAT Group (-0.7%) and Partners Group (-0.6%).
The Zurich-based asset manager announced that it has taken a majority stake in FairJourney Biologics.
The Basel-based giant in substitution drugs, Sandoz (-0.3%), has obtained approval from the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a biosimilar version of ustekinumab, under the brand name Pyschiva.
In the winning camp, UBS (+2.0%) finished on the top step of the podium, ahead of Julius Bär (+1.7%) and Swiss Life, SIG Group and Straumann (all +1.3%).
Credit Suisse has officially ceased to exist in Switzerland: the bank has been removed from the Commercial Register of the Canton of Zurich and no longer exists as a separate legal entity. All rights and obligations have thus been transferred to UBS Switzerland.
Furthermore, the bank with the three keys is no longer the depository bank for the AVS/AI/APG compensation funds, which represent 40.6 billion francs. It lost this mandate to a competing American institution, State Street.
Heavyweights Nestlé (+0.2%), Roche (good +0.2%, buoyant +0.3%) and Novartis (+0.6%) are all in the green.
