Zurich (awp) – The Swiss stock market remained pegged in the red as it approached midday on Tuesday. Investors were betting on prudence, awaiting the intervention of the president of the US Federal Bank (Fed) scheduled for this afternoon, and on better understanding this institution’s intentions in terms of raising key interest rates to try to fight inflation.
The day before, Wall Street closed in no particular order, as did the Asian financial centers on Tuesday. The other European stock exchanges also declined.
“The recent aggressive Fed speech is putting pressure on market sentiment in the very short term and an increase in market volatility is likely with another speech from Jerome Powell in the afternoon,” comments Pierre Veyret of Activtrades.
In Japan, household consumption fell in November for the first time in six months, while the financial community expected a further increase.
As of 10:53 am, the Swiss Market Index (SMI) was down 0.77% to 11,126.57 points, after closing the previous day up 0.61%. The SLI lost 0.83% to 1719.92 points and the SPI lost 0.82% to 14,260.17 points.
Almost all star stocks are in the red, with the exception of Lonza (+0.5%), Swiss Life (+0.5%) and Roche (+0.4%).
After being the only stock to open higher, Swatch (-1%) no longer benefited from an increase in its “sector performance” recommendation from RBC, thanks to the expected recovery in China.
The biggest drops were recorded by Adecco (-4.9%), Group VAT (-2.7%) and Schindler (-2.6%).
Sonova (-1.9%) has seen its recommendation downgraded to “reduce”, versus “lock in” so far, and its price target reduced by nearly a fifth to 206 Swiss francs.
Holcim (-0.8%) announced the acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, of the Italian company Nicem. The company, based near Bergamo, specializes in calcium carbonate.
The other two heavyweights fell more than average: Nestle lost 0.9% and Novartis 2%. According to the brokers, representatives of the pharmaceutical group made disappointing statements about the Kisqali cancer treatment during a JPMorgan health conference.
In the broader market, EFG lost 2.7% after UBS downgraded its recommendation to “neutral”, which already considers the stock’s valuation largely sufficient.
Santhera (-0.2%) will obtain the equivalent of 5 million Swiss francs of shares from counterparty Idorsia (-1.3%), which the laboratory is free to sell to “support its short-term financial needs”.
Pierer Mobility (+3.3%) expects revenue growth of 19% in 2022, which is the top of the range announced at the end of December.
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