Zurich (awp) – The Swiss stock market started to move forward on Wednesday after a break the day before. The SMI again made a small hike in the red at the start of the session before quickly rebounding and gently accentuating its gains to once again clear the 11,300 mark before losing some momentum at the end and ending below this level . The corporate news front has shuddered with preliminary results from Sika’s blue chips.
In New York, Wall Street gained ground in the morning, still well guided by indicators showing an uninterrupted slowdown in the economy and a lull in inflation, which however will have to be confirmed by the CPI price index, expected on Thursday.
“The mood seems quite upbeat,” commented Cresset Capital’s Jack Ablin.
“The trend is up, thanks to the prevailing sentiment that the economy and inflation are slowing, which will help the Fed (US central bank) understand that it no longer needs to hike rates much more,” he explained Briefing.com’s Patrick O’Hare in a note.
Meanwhile, Oanda’s Craig Erlam noted that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell may have refrained from commenting on the monetary policy outlook on Tuesday, but he is likely not to have said anything investors would have liked even if he had broached the subject. Other comments made it clear that politicians are sticking to the “hawkish” scenario.
The SMI closed up 0.75% at 11,246.01 points, with a high of 11,306.31 points and a low of 11,124.92 points at the start of the session. The SLI gained 0.91% to 1742.09 points and the SPI 0.79% to 14,421.58 points. Of the 30 stellar titles, only 4 have fallen.
The losers of the day are VAT (-1.9%), Swiss Re (-1.5%), Roche (-0.9%) and Kühne+Nagel (-0.7%). According to the brokers, the action of the Schindellegi logistician was weighed down by two negative branch studies which recommend the sale of the title.
The other two heavyweights Novartis (+0.5%) and Nestlé (+1.4%) gained ground.
Still driven by rumors of a product launch by its secret client Apple, the volatile AMS Osram (+7.4%) climbed to the top step of the podium, followed by Temenos (+3.0%) and Partners Group (+2.6%).
Bank of America lowered Temenos’ price target and confirmed “underperformance”. Pressure on IT stocks is likely to continue in 2023, analysts say, who expect growth to slow, especially for companies with heavy licensing like Temenos.
Partners Group publishes its assets under management in 2022 on Thursday evening. Analysts expect 136 billion Swiss francs. Growth momentum may have slowed in the second half of the year, but still at a high level, experts predict.
The construction chemist Sika (+1.0%) exceeded the threshold of 10 billion Swiss francs in turnover for the first time in 2022. However, the Zughese-based group revised its profitability expectations slightly downwards, in a context characterized by rising input costs and a slowdown in the construction sector.
In the banking sector, UBS (+1.8%) leads Credit Suisse (+1.7% to 3.11 Swiss francs), which continues its recovery above 3 Swiss francs, and Julius Bär (+1.2%) .
Goldman Sachs raised UBS’s price target and confirmed the “buy”. The robust third-quarter trends continued into the final quarter, according to the analyst.
HSBC has started covering Straumann (+1.7%) at “reduce” and target price at 80 Swiss francs. Falling multiples from pandemic highs could lead to the seductive claim: “Valuations are now reasonable,” experts write in a report.
In the broader market, the Basel pharmaceutical laboratory (+1.8%) recorded stable revenues over a year in 2022 at around 148 million Swiss francs, above the target it had set itself (116-122 million).
The biochemist of flavours, fragrances, sweeteners and mosquito repellents Evolva (+0.2%) closed 2022 with a turnover of 15.5 million Swiss francs, up 57% and in line with the target set by the management . The producer has also taken care of its profitability and intends to continue on this path during the year that has begun.
Chipmaker U-Blox (-12.1%) saw its revenue double in 2022, while growth reached 24% in the fourth quarter. After an exceptional vintage last year, the company expects a return to normality in 2023.
The manufacturer of applications devices Medmix (-7.4%), a former division of Sulzer (-0.1%), has decided to sell its operations in Poland, penalized by local sanctions due to the presence in the shareholding of the Russian oligarch Victor Vekselberg.
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