Swiss Market Ends Slightly Up After Choppy Session

(RTTNews) - The Switzerland stock market ended modestly higher on Thursday after a choppy session.

Stocks swung between gains and losses as investors largely stayed cautious and uncertainty about the near term direction after the Federal Reserve sounded hawkish with regard to its future policy stance, and the European Central Bank raised rates and hinted at another hike in July.

The benchmark SMI ended with a gain of 24.53 points or 0.22% at 11,302.83. The index touched a low of 11,249.85 and a high of 11,305.93 in the session.

Nestle and Logitech gained about 1.3% and 1.2%, respectively. Novartis ended 0.7% up and Swisscom gained 0.69%.

UBS Group ended lower by about 1.25%. Partners Group, Holcim, Lonza Group, Richemont, Swiss Life Holding, Geberit and Sika lost 0.6 to 0.8%.

Among the stocks in the Mid Price index, Schindler Ps, Flughafen Zurich and Schindler Holding gained 1.71%, 1.52% and 1.25%, respectively.

Georg Fischer ended nearly 1% up. Tecan Group, SGS and PSP Swiss Property posted modest gains.

VAT Group ended 4.2% down. Temenos Group, DocMorris, SIG Combibloc and Meyer Burger Tech lost 2.2 to 3.4%.

In economic news, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, or SECO, said in a report that it expects the nation's gross domestic product to grow 1.1% this year, unchanged from the previous projection. Likewise, growth outlook for 2024 was maintained at 1.5%.

Domestic demand is likely to be the major contributor to the growth in 2023, the expert group said. On the other hand, foreign trade will set to contribute little to GDP growth.

The forecast is based on the assumption that there will not be any energy shortage with widespread production losses in the winter of 2023/24. Gas and electricity prices are projected to remain high by historical standards.

High inflation is expected to continue in the short-term. The government observed that inflation pressures remained high globally, posing pronounced economic risks.

The SECO forecast inflation to stabilize at 2.3% in 2023, slightly down from the previous outlook of 2.4%. For 2024, inflation forecast has been retained at 1.5%.