The Swiss stock market rose again on Wednesday. Investors are reassured by more moderate than expected remarks from the new President of the United States Donald Trump. After a high well above the 12,200 point mark at the start of the afternoon, the SMI lost some momentum.
In New York, Wall Street gained ground in the morning, driven by corporate results generally above expectations and relieved by announcements from American President Donald Trump on customs duties and artificial intelligence.
The company results “were enough to revive a stock market which had been bogged down due to the rise in bond rates,” said Patrick O’Hare, analyst at Briefing.com, in a note.
“The recovery continues (…) so far around fifteen key companies have published their results”, most of which have shown good performance, explained Peter Cardillon, analyst at Spartan Capital Securities.
Tuesday evening, the American president assured that his government was discussing “10% customs duties on Chinese products”, “probably for February 1”. The date corresponds to that announced the day before for the application of 25% customs duties on Mexican and Canadian products.
“This would suggest that the new administration will adopt a progressive rather than aggressive approach,” said Mirabaud Banque expert John Plassard.
“The financial markets continue to celebrate the billionaire’s inauguration on the European and especially American stock markets. As a businessman, Donald Trump is already fanning the embers of AI and wishes to continue this boom, which particularly delights investors, both in technology stocks and in the S&P 500 in the broad sense,” noted analyst Frank Sohleder at ActivTrades.
“Volatility on the markets will increase with the start of Trump 2.0, but we believe that the macroeconomic context will remain favorable to the financial markets,” predicts the Raiffeisen bank.
-The SMI ended with a gain of 0.80% at 12,207.89 points, higher at 12,247.80 points and lower at 12,178.98 points. The SLI advanced by 0.76% to 2,024.37 points and the SPI by 0.70% to 16,267.45 points. Of the 30 star stocks, 19 gained ground and eleven lost ground.
ABB (+3.7%), Sonova (+3.1%) and Partners Group (+2.3%) finished on the podium.
In the heavyweight camp, Roche (+1.3%) and Novartis (+0.4%) progressed, while Nestlé (-0.8%) weighed on the index.
Roche has received authorization from the United States Medicines Agency (FDA) for the marketing of its tests intended to diagnose sexually transmitted diseases.
Logitech (-1.8%), Adecco and Swisscom (each -1.7%) and the good Lindt (-1.3%) finished at the bottom of the ranking.
On the broader market, the cocoa trader Barry Callebaut (-8.0%) saw its sales volumes decrease by 2.7% to 565,238 tonnes in the first quarter of its staggered 2024/25 financial year ending at the end of November. Management abandons the idea of redressing the balance for the rest of the year, but sticks to its projections in terms of operational surplus.
Swiss
