Swiss Market Ends Higher For 2nd Straight Day

(RTTNews) - The Switzerland stock market, which briefly slipped into negative territory after opening higher Friday morning, recovered swiftly and gradually moved higher to finally end the session on a firm note.

Rising optimism about global economic recovery and good progress in the vaccination drive lifted the market and pushed the benchmark index SMI closer to its all-time high.

The SMI ended with a gain of 73.50 points or 0.66% at 11,225.58, slightly off the day's high of 11,239.20, and not far from the record high of 11,266.78 posted in mid-April. On Thursday, the index ended with a gain of 106.88 points or 0.97%.

Richemont surged up nearly 5% after the group said it has proposed to double its dividend to prepandemic levels thanks to full-year financial results beating expectations.

Richemont posted a net profit of 1.289 billion euros in the year to March, up 38% over the previous year. The company has proposed a dividend of 2 Swiss francs per share for financial year 2020-21.

Swiss Life Holding and Swatch Group both ended higher by about 1.35%. ABB, Alcon, Partners Group and UBS Group gained 1 to 1.1%, and Roche Holding ended nearly 1% up. Sika and Credit Suisse also closed on firm note.

Among the stocks in the Mid Price Index, Sonova rallied 4.75%. Tecan Group and Straumann Holding both gained about 1.5%. Lindt & Spruengli, VAT Group, Schindler Holding, Kuehne & Nagel and Georg Fischer gained 0.75 to 1.25%.