Swiss Market Ends Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - After a firm start and a subsequent long spell in positive territory, the Switzerland market retreated in late afternoon trades on Monday, but recovered soon to eventually end the day's session modestly higher.

Amid a lack of fresh data, investors largely stayed cautious and continued to react to recent quarterly earnings updates, and awaited U.S. inflation data for clarity on Fed's interest rate moves.

The benchmark SMI ended with a gain of 35.04 points or 0.33% at 10,590.39. The index, which climbed to 10,603.07 around mid morning, touched a low of 10,540.33 later on in the session.

Holcim gained about 1.5%. Swiss Re and ABB climbed 1.27% and 1.21%, respectively. Sika, Alcon and Swiss Life Holding gained 1 to 1.1%.

Logitech and Novartis both advanced nearly 1%. Roche Holding, Zurich Insurance Group and Kuehna & Nagel and posted notable gains.

Richemont ended nearly 2% down. Geberit ended lower by 1.52%, while UBS Group and Nestle settled lower by 0.68% and 0.48%, respectively.

In the Mid Price Index, Sandoz surged nearly 4% and AMS gained about 3.5%. VAT Group and Julius Baer ended higher by about 2% and 1.8%, respectively.

Lindt & Spruengli, Ems Chemie Holding, Helvetia, Meyer Burger Tech, Clariant and Baloise Holding also ended with impressive gains.

Tecan Group drifted down by about 2.6% and SGS ended nearly 2% down. Straumann Holding, Georg Fischer and Schindler Ps also closed weak.