Swiss Markets Settles Higher After Choppy Session

(RTTNews) - The Switzerland market closed on a positive note on Thursday with investors digesting some corporate earnings updates and reacting to the European Central Bank's rate cut decision.

The benchmark SMI, which spent most part of the session till about a couple of hours past noon in negative territory, moved higher in the closing hour to finish on a firm note at 11,660.96, gaining 62.34 points or 0.54%.

Sonova climbed 1.8%. Straumann Holding, Nestle, SIG Group, Swiss Re and Richemont gained 1 to 1.5%.

ABB gained nearly 1.5%. The company announced plans to spin off its Robotics division into a separately listed company by the second quarter of 2026.

The company also reported a 22% year-over-year surge in first-quarter attributable net income to $1.10 billion, with revenue also rising 1% to $7.94 billion.

Givaudan, Swisscom, Lindt & Spruengli, Logitech International, Kuehne + Nagel, Swatch Group, Roche Holding and SGS advanced 0.4 to 1%.

VAT Group ended 3.14% down. Adecco, Sandoz Group, Schindler Ps and Geberit lost 1.2 to 1.7%. Holcim, Alcon and Lonza Group also ended weak.

In economic news, Switzerland's foreign trade surplus decreased in the first quarter as exports fell amid an increase in imports, data from the Federal Customs Administration showed.

The trade balance registered a surplus of CHF 13.7 billion, which was below the CHF 14.4 billion logged in the final quarter of 2024. In the same period last year, the surplus was CHF 9.7 billion.

In real terms, exports declined 5.7%, reversing a 7.2% increase a quarter ago. At the same time, imports rebounded 3.1% versus a 0.2% drop seen in the previous three-month period.

In March, the trade surplus rose to CHF 5.3 billion from CHF 4.3 billion in February, data showed. In nominal terms, both exports and imports climbed by 12.6% and 10.4%, respectively, from a month earlier.

Another report from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry showed that watch exports increased 1.5% annually in March. Nonetheless, the trend for the first quarter as a whole was slightly negative, with a decline of 1.1%.