Swiss Market Ends Lower Again

(RTTNews) - The Switzerland stock market ended on a weak note on Wednesday, extending losses from the previous session, despite spending nearly a couple of hours in positive territory early on in the session.

The benchmark SMI ended with a loss of 45.57 points or 0.41% at 11,056.74, the day's low. The index advanced to a high of 11,138.03 earlier in the day.

Roche Holding ended nearly 2% down. Logitech also shed almost 2%. Givaudan, Novartis, Swisscom and SGS ended lower by 1 to 1.3%, while Geberit shed nearly 1%.

Holcim rallied 4.5% on strong results. The building materials company said its first-half net income Group share climbed 38% to 1.16 billion Swiss francs from last year's 839 million francs. Earnings per share reached 1.90 francs, up 39.7% from 1.36 francs a year ago.

Adjusted net income was 1.30 billion francs or 2.14 francs per share, compared to 881 million francs or 1.43 francs per share a year ago, Holcim said.

Richemont surged 1.7%, while Swiss Life Holding and Alcon moved up 0.9 to 1%.

Credit Suisse recovered from early weakness and closed modestly higher despite posting its third straight quarterly loss. The Swiss banking major announced that its second-quarter net loss attributable to shareholders was 1.59 billion Swiss francs, compared to net income of 253 million francs last year.

Pre-tax loss was 1.17 billion francs, compared to prior year's pre-tax income of 813 million francs, the bank said. Adjusted pre-tax loss was 442 million francs, compared to income of 1.31 billion francs a year ago.

In the Swiss Mid Price Index, Galenica Sante plunged 6.7%. Lindt & Spreungli ended lower by 3% on profit taking. Tecan Group drifted down 2.75%, while PSP Swiss Property and Barry Callebaut lost 1.82% and 1.4%, respectively.

Zur Rose gained 4.3%. Temenos Group climbed nearly 4%, AMS firmed 2.6%, while Cembra Money Bank, Georg Fischer, VAT Group and Adecco gained 1.5 to 1.8%.

In economic news, a report from Credit Suisse & CFA Society Switzerland showed the Swiss Investor sentiment index increased by 15.5 points from the prior month to -57.2 in July of 2022, with financial analysts forecasting higher inflation but noting that there is only a limited risk of recession.

Meanwhile, the current conditions index fell by 4.3 points from the previous month to 10.8 in July, the report said.