2023-12-28 17:16:14
Zurich (awp) – The Swiss stock market continued the negative trend of the previous day on Thursday and concluded the penultimate session of the year in the red. After a still positive start, the SMI of the star stocks quickly plunged below balance and the symbolic bar of 11,100 points and ended at its lowest of the day.
On the currency front, the franc strengthened further against the euro, reaching a new high since the lifting of the floor rate in January 2015. Around 5:30 p.m., the community currency was only worth 92.92 cents. The dollar also lost ground against the franc, to 83.89 cents.
In New York, Wall Street gained ground in the morning. Just two sessions before the end of the year, the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 are up 13% and 24% respectively over the year.
The Nasdaq, which includes the “Magnificent Seven” – tech mega-caps like Microsoft, Apple and Nvidia – soared 44%. 2023 could be the best year since 2003 for the tech-heavy index.
The three indices are also on track to end a ninth straight week in positive territory.
“We have the impression that there is a magnetic force which attracts the S&P 500 towards a record, but it is not there yet. It is not impossible that we achieve it today”, estimated Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com.
At the macroeconomic level, weekly applications for unemployment benefits increased for the second week in a row in the United States. They increased from 12,000 to 218,000, more than expected but without signaling a major impact on the unemployment rate.
“The main takeaway from the report is that it is not going to shake up the market perception that the labor market remains in good shape overall,” noted Patrick O’Hare.
In Japan, industrial production fell in November for the first time in three months, but less than expected.
The SMI ended down 0.51% to 11,057.55 points, its lowest of the day, after a high of 11,129.24 in the first exchanges. The SLI lost 0.56% to 1765.55 points and the SPI 0.47% to 14,477.36 points. Of the 30 star stocks, Lonza (+0.2%), Alcon (+0.1%) and SGS (+0.01%) are the only winners of the day.
UBS (-1.6%) finished bottom, behind SIG Group (-1.3%) and Richemont (-1.2%).
Credit Suisse, now part of the number one Swiss bank, was fined 3.9 million Singapore dollars (2.5 million Swiss francs) for its inability to detect and prevent the misconduct of certain employees. The former number two Swiss bank recognized the facts and compensated the injured customers, specifies the authority of the city-state.
The other banking company Julius Bär (-0.6%) did not escape the trend, nor the other luxury stock Swatch (-0.4%).
In the heavyweight camp, Nestlé (-0.1%) and Novartis (-0.2%) held up better than Roche (good -0.5%, buoyant -0.8%).
On the broader market, SHL Telemedicine (+1.5%) will propose the candidacies of Ido Nouberger and Nir Rotenberg to the board of directors during the general meeting convened for February 8.
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