Swiss Market Settles Roughly Flat

(RTTNews) - After swinging between gains and losses in cautious trade, the Switzerland stock market ended roughly flat on Friday.

Despite optimism about a coronavirus vaccine, the mood in the market was quite cautious due to continued surge in new cases of infection in the country.

Investors also digested the data on producer and import prices for the month of October.

The benchmark SMI ended down 3.59 points or 0.03% at 10,492.61, after moving between 10,464.10 and 10,513.90.

Alcon gained 2.6% and Swiss Re moved up 1.6%. Zurich Insurance Group, Credit Suisse, Swatch Group, Richemont and Swiss Life Holding gained 0.7 to 1.1%. UBS Group closed modestly higher.

Among the losers, SGS declined 1.3%, while Sika, Geberit, Roche Holding, ABB and Novartis lost 0.4 to 0.8%.

Among the stocks in the Mid Price Index, VAT Group climbed more than 3.5%, Lindt & Sp Ps surged up 3% and Tecan Group gained 2.5%.

Julius Baer, Dufry, Vifor Pharma, Temenos Group and Baloise Holding moved up 0.9 to 1.4%.

Sonova slid 1.7% and PSP Swiss Property declined nearly 1%. Georg Fischer, Swiss Prime Site and SIG Combibloc lost 0.6 to 0.8%.

Data from the Federal Statistical Office showed Switzerland's producer and import prices decreased in October, falling 2.9% year-on-year.

The producer price index decreased 1.6% annually in October and import prices decreased 5.6%.

On a monthly basis, producer and import prices remained unchanged in October.

The latest increase was mainly due to a rise in prices for machinery and watches, while petroleum products, petroleum and natural gas became cheaper, the agency said.

Domestic sale prices fell 0.7% yearly in October and rose 0.1% from a month ago.

Meanwhile, a report in Reuters, citing Swiss health authorities, says coronavirus infections rose by 6,739 cases in a day in the country.

Total confirmed cases in Switzerland and neighbouring principality Liechtenstein increased to 257,135 and the death toll rose by 97 to 2,960, the report says.