Swiss Market Closes Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - After opening weak and languishing in negative territory till a couple of hours past noon, the Switzerland stock market gradually moved higher on Wednesday and finally settled with modest gains.

In addition to digesting quarterly earnings updates and consumer price inflation data, investors continued to follow the developments on the geopolitical front, and awaited the crucial U.S. non-farm payroll data for clues about the Fed's policy stance.

The benchmark SMI ended with a gain of 60.89 points or 0.55% at 11,178.99, after climbing to a high of 11,200.36. The index touched a low of 11,054.02 around mid morning.

Logitech rallied nearly 4%. Partners Group surged 2.3% and Sika gained nearly 2%, while Swiss Re climbed 1.7%.

Swiss Life Holdings, Richemont, Holcim, Geberit, UBS Group and Zurich Insurance Group also closed notably higher.

Swisscom declined 2.51%, while Givaudan and Nestle ended lower by 0.7% and 0.25%, respectively.

In the Swiss Mid Price Index, BB Biotech soared 8.2%. Temenos Group, AMS, Straumann Holding, Bachem Holding, VAT Group and Tecan Group gained 3 to 4.5%.

Adecco, Dufry, Swatch Group, Sonova, Julius Baer and Flughafen Zurich also ended with strong gains.

Zur Rose, Galenica Sante, Lindt & Spruengli and Barry Callebaut ended weak.

Data from the Federal Statistical Office showed Switzerland's consumer price inflation held steady in July to remain at its highest level in twenty-nine years.

Consumer prices rose 3.4% year-on-year in July, the same rate of increase as in June. On a monthly basis, consumer prices showed no variations in July versus an expected fall of 0.1%.