Zurich (awp) – After the new record set the day before at the close, the Swiss stock exchange started Tuesday’s session up, with the flagship SMI index advancing on the path of 13,000 points. With the exception of a small acquisition by specialty chemist Clariant, the frontline for business news remained sparse, as did that for macroeconomic news, within days of the New Year’s celebrations.
Like the Swiss market, the New York Stock Exchange started the week well, ending Monday on a solid rise. The S&P 500 index hit a new high and the Dow Jones index closed higher as did the Nasdaq. “In this season, the trend favors risky assets and Wall Street hopes to end the year on a traditional + Santa Claus + (Santa Claus Rally)”, said analysts from Wells Fargo.
On the macroeconomic news front, industrial production in Japan jumped 7.2% in November over one month. The jump reflected in particular by growth in the automotive sector, a strong sign of recovery in the industry, held back for months by shortages. The unemployment rate rose slightly in November to 2.8% of the working population. Analysts, however, underlined the strength of the labor market in the archipelago, the development of which will nevertheless be conditioned by the Omicron variant.
After opening up 0.17%, the SMI bolstered its early trading gains, passing the 12,900 point mark. At 9:15 am, the star index noted at 12,907.56 points, a gain of 0.30%. The SLI for its part gleaned 0.29% to 2071.92 points, while the extended index SPI took 0.33% to 16,475.97 points.
Among the 30 values constituting the SLI, only six registered in decline, the 24 others increasing. At the top of the table, Kühne + Nagel (+ 0.8%) escaped in the lead, tightened closely by Sonova (+ 0.8%), Alcon occupying 3rd place on the podium at the time. The three heavyweights supported the advance, Novartis gaining 0.6%, Roche 0.5% and Nestlé 0.3%.
At the bottom of the table, Richemont inherited the red lantern, falling 0.44%, even though the Biel competitor Swatch Group (+ 0.1%) was among the winners at the start of the session. Schindler and Holcim (both -0.2%) were also struggling, as were UBS, Temenos and Geberit (-0.1% each).
On the broader market side, Clariant expanded by 0.5%, after the purchase for $ 60 million (55 million Swiss francs) in cash of activities in the attapulgite of German BASF in the United States. At the same time, the Basel group has concluded a long-term supply agreement with the German giant.
Adecco also took a little ground (+ 0.3%).
Relief Therapeutics rose by 3.4%, the Geneva-based company having indicated that it would wait until the end of January for the result of its patent application in Switzerland for the inhaled version of its drug RLF-100 (Aviptadil).
At the other end of the ranking, the worst performance of the day went to Pierer Mobility (-5.5%).
vj / al