The Swiss Stock Exchange ended on a positive note on Monday, continuing the momentum of last Friday. However, a certain nervousness remains in place before the inauguration of American President Donald Trump in two weeks. The flagship SMI index oscillated between red and green and ended at the highest of the day, less than ten points below the symbolic bar of 11,700 points. The corporate news front remained quiet.
In New York, Wall Street gained ground in the morning, propelled by the good performance of the big names in tech. Investors are also preparing to welcome a new set of indicators.
The New York market is awaiting several data on American employment this week, including the monthly report from the ADP firm on job creation in the private sector in the United States for December, on the program for Wednesday. The PMI index from the ISM institute, published Tuesday, will also provide information on the state of activity in the services sector.
For Mirabaud Banque expert John Plassard, “questions concerning political issues in Europe and the United States two weeks before the inauguration of Donald Trump could reverse the positive trend”.
“The current problem could be that European markets are nervous before the inauguration of Donald Trump,” added analyst Frank Sohlleder of Activtrades. Without clear indication from Wall Street, “the situation remains difficult for investors,” he added.
On the macroeconomic front, growth in China’s services sector rebounded in December to its highest level in seven months, according to the Purchasing Managers’ Activity Index (PMI) for services, calculated by S&P Global and the Chinese economic media Caixin.
Private sector activity continued to decline in December in France for the fourth consecutive month, leading to a drop in employment, but it recovered from the ten-month low recorded in November, according to the index PMI.
In Germany, inflation reached 2.6% year-on-year in December, a stronger increase than expected. This is the third month in a row of acceleration in inflation across the Rhine.
In Switzerland, retail turnover took advantage of the rising cost phenomenon to increase by 0.8% in November year-on-year, excluding the effects of working days and public holidays.
The SMI ended up 0.58% at 11,691.13 points, the highest of the day and after a low of 11,584.67. The SLI gained 0.79% to 1947.81 points and the SPI 0.63% to 15,616.72 points. Of the 30 star stocks, 21 rose, 8 fell and SIG Group finished unchanged.
VAT Group (+4.9%) finished on the top step of the podium, ahead of Logitech (+3.9%) and Richemont (+3.6%).
Stifel analysts have raised the price target for the Geneva luxury giant and confirmed their “buy” recommendation. Conversely, they lowered the price target for the Biel watchmaker Swatch (+1.8%) and confirmed “hold”. The recommendation for the luxury sector was raised to “neutral” from “cautious”.
Givaudan (-1.4%) finished bottom, behind Nestlé (-0.9%) and Sonova (-0.7%). The action of the Vevey food giant did not benefit from having been placed in the 2025 list of favorites (“Top 30 Global Ideas for 2025) of the Royal Bank of Canada.
The two other heavyweights Novartis (-0.1) and Roche (+0.4%) developed differently.
In the broader market, chip manufacturer Cicor (+60.8%) has finalized the acquisition of German service provider for the development and manufacturing of electronic modules and systems Profectus.
Online pharmacist DocMorris (-5.3%) suffered after several price target reductions.
The Santhera laboratory (+0.7%) has extended the geographic distribution of its Duchenne muscular dystrophy treatment Agamree (vamorolone) to new, unspecified countries.
Bank Vontobel (+0.6%) put an end to the takeover of IHAG Privatbank customers. The latter had already announced the cessation of its management activities after the transaction. (AWP)
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