Swiss Market Ends Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - The Switzerland market, which spent much of the day's session in negative territory, closed on a positive note on Friday, thanks to some strong buying at select counters in the final hour.

The benchmark SMI, which climbed to 13,110.56 in the closing minutes, ended the session with a gain of 47.29 points or 0.36% at 13,076.68. The index had dropped to 12,889.55 in early trades.

Givaudan, Nestle and Lindt & Spruengli gained 2 to 2.22%. Schindler Ps, Swisscom, Novartis and Roche climbed 1.4 to 1.7%.

Sandoz, ABB, Swiss Life Holding, SGS, Zurich Insurance, Sonova and Swiss Re advanced 0.3 to 0.1%.

Mikron Holding rallied more than 8% afte reporting higher sales. The company said it booked a year-over-year increase in 2024 net sales to 374.1 million francs from 370.2 million francs.

Richemont tumbled nearly 5.5%. Swatch Group ended down 3.15% and Geberit closed 2.1% down.

Alcon ended nearly 2% down. Adecco and Sika closed lower by 1.79% and 1.43%, respectively. Logitech International, SIG Group, Lonza Group and Straumann Holding lost 0.8 to 1%, while Kuehne + Nagel and Holcim, both ended lower by about 0.65%.

Flughafen Zurich drifted down by about 1.6% despite the company reporting consolidated earnings of CHF 326.7 million in 2024, compared to CHF 304.2 million in the previous year.

The euro area economy grew in the fourth quarter at a faster than initially estimated pace, driven by consumption and investment. Eurozone economic growth for the fourth quarter was revised up to 0.2% from 0.1%, Eurostat reported. Still, this was weaker than the 0.4% expansion seen in the third quarter.

Data from the Swiss National Bank said Switzerland's foreign exchange reserves decreased to CHF 735,371 million in February from CHF 736,437 million in January.