Zurich (awp) – After the first two trading sessions of the year on the rise, the Swiss stock exchange suffered a setback on Thursday, closing sharply in the red. The SMI initially moved more or less sideways and slightly below the 11,100 mark. On the back of the day’s US data, it clearly deepened its losses to hit its low for the day before recovering somewhat.
In New York, Wall Street opened sharply lower, with the Dow Jones, Nasdaq and S&P 500 down more than 1% after stronger-than-expected private sector job creation in December in the US, which it will likely encourage the Fed to keep raising interest rates.
The SMI closed down 0.74% at 11,057.39 points, with a low of 11,048.09 and a high of 11,112.50. The SLI fell by 0.38% to 1703.21 points and the SPI by 0.57% to 14,172.32 points. Of the 30 stellar stocks, twelve declined, three stagnated, and the remaining half gained traction.
The biggest losers of the day are Roche (-2.3%), weighed down by the downgrade of Jefferies’ recommendation; Zurich Insurance (-1.8%) failed the “neutral” of Exane BNP Paribas and Sika (-1.7), scratched by Morgan Stanley.
Novartis (-1.0%) and Nestlé (-0.3%) also lost ground.
The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) raised the price target of Swiss Re (-0.3%) and confirmed the “performance of the sector”. After another year of higher-than-normal losses from natural disasters, reinsurers have been underperforming, according to the analyst, who estimates the industry’s losses from these disasters at $120 billion. We are heading towards the sixth consecutive year of price increases.
Cement producer Holcim (+0.3%) announced the acquisition of Chrono Chape, one of the leading independent suppliers of self-leveling screeds in France. The transaction amount has not been disclosed.
ABB (+0.1%) has sold its UK engineering consultancy business to German certification company TÜV Rheinland. The transaction, the financial details of which were not disclosed, should be finalized in the second quarter.
In the banking sector, Credit Suisse (steady at 2.96 Swiss francs) reached a daily high just above 3 Swiss francs (3.013 Swiss francs) but failed to maintain it. UBS (+0.1%) and Julius Bär (+0.3%) gained some points.
At the extreme right of the standings, Adecco (+1.8%) precedes Iva (+1.7%) and Sonova (+1.6%) on the podium of the day. The Zurich-based manufacturer of hearing aids and hearing aids has announced the launch of a range of entry-level products, based on technology that offers better speech understanding in noisy environments.
Also sought after specialist in eye products Alcon (+1.3%) announced the launch of a reusable contact lens for astigmatism, whose market is estimated at $1.2 billion.
Bank of America raised Schindler’s recommendation (+1.1%) to “buy” from “underperform” and sharply increased its price target to 200 from 130 Swiss francs. The elevator and escalator maker’s margins are expected to recover in the fourth quarter, analysts expect.
It also raised its price target and confirmed its “buy” for Accelleron (+1.3%), ABB’s recent offshoot, on the broader market. Analysts expect a strong fourth quarter and stable growth in 2023.
Energy company BKW (-3.9%) already lost most of its earnings the day before, analysts believe the exceptional surplus announced for 2022 is not likely to transform the outlook for the future.
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