Swiss Market Ends Marginally Up

(RTTNews) - After plunging sharply early on in the session on Monday, the Switzerland stock market recovered slowly on bargain hunting and emerged into positive territory in the final hour to eventually close modestly higher.

Worries about economic slowdown, rising inflation and surging interest rates weighed down the market.

The benchmark SMI, which fell to 10,097.84, ended with a gain of 23.16 points or 0.23% at 10,290.71, the day's high.

Swisscom suged about 2.1%. Richemont and Partners Group both gained nearly 2%. Alcon climbed 1.6%, UBS Group gained 1.42%, Zurich Insurance Group gained 1.11% and Swiss Life Holding ended 1.07% up.

Lonza Group, Sika, Holcim, Novartis and Geberit also ended higher.

Logitech and ABB drifted down 1.72% and 1.62%, respectively. Credit Suisse ended nearly 1% down.

In the Mid Price Index, Kuehne & Nagel, Clariant and VAT Group gained 2.4 to 2.8%. Georg Fischer climbed 1.81%, while Ems Chemie Holding, AMS, Baloise Holding, Swiss Prime Site, Adecco, Swatch Group, Julius Baer and Helvetia gained 0.9 to 1.5%.

Temenos Group ended lower by about 2.2%. Bachem Holding, Lindt & Spruengli, SIG Combibloc and Straumann Holding shed 1.25 to 1.6%.

Data from the Federal Statistical Office showed Switzerland's consumer price inflation eased unexpectedly in September from a 29-year high in August.

Consumer prices rose 3.3% year-on-year in September, slower than the 3.5% increase in August. Economists had expected inflation to remain steady at 3.5%.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices dropped 0.2% in September, reversing a 0.3% rise in the prior month. This was the first fall in nine months.

The monthly decline in September was attributed to falling prices for fuels, heating oil, hotels and supplementary accommodation.

Data also showed that core consumer prices moved up 2% from last year, while they showed no variations from a month ago.