2023-07-31 16:16:06
Zurich (awp) – The Swiss stock market ended Monday on a just negative note, at the end of a week rich in corporate results and monetary policy decisions from central banks and on the eve of the August 1 public holiday. After a slightly negative opening phase, the SMI settled in the green until the second half of the afternoon, before weakening and ending very close to the low of the day.
In New York, Wall Street gained a little ground in the morning at the start of a week which will still be rich in results and macroeconomic indicators.
The results of the mega-caps Apple and Amazon are expected in particular on Thursday after the close, while the activity indicators for the manufacturing and services sectors (ISM) will be published respectively on Tuesday and Thursday.
Finally, it is the official employment figures for July that will attract all the attention of investors on Friday. Analysts expect another month of sustained job creation at 200,000 in July, according to Briefing.com, after 209,000 in June. The unemployment rate is expected to remain stable at 3.6%.
The SMI ended down 0.08% at 11,309.25 points, with a low of 11,308.02 and a high of 11,349.37 at the start of the session. The SLI fell more sharply by 0.29% to 1,789.06 points and the SPI lost 0.11% to 14,927.07 points. Of the 30 star stocks, 14 fell and 16 advanced.
AMS Osram (-3.3) finished at the bottom, behind Swiss Re (-2.7%) and Julius Bär (-2.2%).
The title of the maker of semiconductors gave up a small part of its gains, after having soared 18.5% on Friday at the close, carried by the announcement of a major restructuring program. UBS, Jefferies and Partners Group immediately raised the Austrian group’s price target, all recommending the stock to “hold”.
Friday evening, Fitch had confirmed the credit rating of the reinsurer. The long-term issuer default rating (IDR) for Swiss Reinsurance Company remains “A” and the financial capacity rating (IFS) “A+”. The outlook for the ratings remains “stable”.
UBS (+0.1%) finished in the green. The Swiss Association for the Protection of Shareholders (SASV) has been seeking since Monday to recruit former shareholders of Credit Suisse (CS) with a view to initiating legal proceedings aimed at obtaining “adequate compensation” in the context of the takeover. of the former number two Swiss bank by its competitor UBS announced on March 19.
Today’s podium consists of Temenos (+1.0%), Novartis and Swatch (each +0.9%) and Kühne+Nagel (+0.7%).
Roche (+0.3%) also supported the index, while Nestlé (-0.5%) weighed.
JPMorgan lowered Roche’s price target and confirmed “underweight”. The analyst adjusted his estimates downwards mainly to take into account the effects of exchange rates.
Baader Helvea has planed that of the food giant while confirming “add”. Nestlé made good progress in terms of profitability in the 1st half and speaks of stable growth. The good profitability makes a further recovery in margins in the second half of 2023 and beyond more credible, added the expert.
Richemont (+0.2%) also gained ground, like its competitor from Biel.
In the broader market, Santhera (+3.7%) finalized the sale of the Raxone treatment in all markets and in all its indications to its Italian counterpart Chiesi Farmaceutici, its distribution partner since 2019.
Orell Füssli (-0.6%) recorded revenue growth of 7.6% in the first six months of the year to 105.0 million Swiss francs, fueled mainly by the core business of selling books retail and the acquisition of Hep Verlag educational editions. Significant investments in digitization, however, weighed on operational profitability.
Energiedienst (-0.7%) increased its turnover over the first six months of the year, taking advantage of the rise in electricity prices, but the Aargau group saw its profitability decline, due to an exceptional contribution last year.
Igea Pharma, whose shares SIX suspended trading at the beginning of June, announced that it had recorded a final net loss of 11.8 million euros in 2022 (just less in Swiss francs), correcting upwards a deficit of 10 .3 million announced in mid-May.
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