Swiss Market Closes Moderately Higher
(RTTNews) - Despite a couple of weak spells during the day's trading session, the Switzerland market closed moderately higher on Monday, in line with markets across Europe after data showed an improvement in services sector activity in the region. Optimism about a recovery of the Chinese economy following recent stimulus measures helped as well.
Investors digested the nation's retail sales data, as well as manufacturing and services sector activity readings from Germany, France and the U.K.
The benchmark SMI closed higher by 67.11 points or 0.58% at 11,691.13, the day's high.
VAT Group rallied nearly 5%. Logitech International gained 3.85% and Richemont closed stronger by 3.6%.
UBS Group and Sika gained 2.64% and 2.25%, respectively. Straumann Holding gained 1.82% and Swatch Group closed up 1.75%.
Lonza Group, Schindler Ps, Partners Group, Julius Baer, Holcim, ABB, SGS and Geberit also ended with strong gains.
Givaudan closed 1.44% down. Sonova drifted down 0.7%. Nestle lost nearly 1%.
Data from the Federal Statistical Office showed that Swiss retail sales growth softened more than expected in November amid a slower rise in demand for non-food products.
Retail sales rose 0.8% on a yearly basis after a 1.5% stable increase in October. Further, this was the fifth successive growth in a row. Economists had expected a 1.3% rise.
Month-on-month, retail sales dropped 0.1% in November, in contrast to a 0.1% rebound in the previous month. In nominal terms, retail turnover registered an annual decline of 0.3%.
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