Swiss Market Ends On Weak Note

(RTTNews) - After a weak start and a subsequent recovery that resulted in a positive spell till about a couple of hours past noon, the Switzerland market turned weak on Monday and ended the day's session moderately lower.

The benchmark SMI ended down 85.32 points or 0.69% at 12,279.86, near the day's low. The index touched a high of 12,434.03 in the session.

Richemont dropped 4.16%. Givaudan, Nestle and Sika lost 1.94%, 1.61% and 1.58%, respectively.

Alcon, Geberi, Novartis and Sonova ended lower by 0.9 to 1.1%. Kuehne & Nagel, UBS Group and Lonza Group ended modestly lower.

Roche Holding climbed 1.53%. Holcim ended higher by 0.84%. Swisscom and Swiss Re posted modest gains.

Swatch Group plunged 9.8%. The Swiss manufacturer of watches and jewelry reported a decline in sales for the first half due to a sharp drop in demand for luxury goods in China.

Meyer Burger Tech ended down 6.5%. ams OSRAM AG, Ems Chemie Holding, Schindler Holding, Sandoz, Belimo Holding, Clariant, Georg Fischer, Baloise Holding, Barry Callebaut, Schindler Ps, Avolda and Addeco ended down 1.2 to 4%.

Flughafen Zurich, VAT Group, Lindt & Spruengli, Julius Baer and Temenos Group closed higher.

On the economic front, Switzerland's producer and import prices continued to decline in June, data from the Federal Statistical Office showed.

Producer and import prices dropped 1.9% year-on-year in June, following a 1.8% drop in the previous month. Prices have been falling since May 2023.

The producer price index dropped 1.2% annually in June, and import prices registered a decrease of 3.2%.

On a monthly basis, producer and import prices remained flat in June after falling 0.3% in the previous month. Prices were expected to increase by 0.1%.

Lower monthly prices were observed primarily for mineral products, while those for food became more expensive.