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Zurich (awp) – After two weak sessions, the Swiss stock exchange regained some momentum on Friday and ended its last session of the year in the green. The SMI closed above the 11,100 point mark. For the year as a whole, it recorded a slight increase of 3.8%. The meeting was quiet as many speakers were already on leave. The market will reopen on Wednesday January 3rd after the long New Year holiday break.
In New York, Wall Street was near equilibrium in the morning, with the Dow Jones still trading at record levels while the S&P 500 was also near an all-time high. All three indices are expected to finish in positive territory for the ninth week in a row.
“The last trading day of the year is here and so far it doesn’t look like the last nine weeks of the year,” if things were similar, stocks would rise sharply, he said, commented Patrick O’Hare, an analyst at Briefing.com.
All eyes will be on the broader S&P 500 index and “its ability to end 2023 with a new record,” he stressed.
“What a great way to end this year-end boom! On Thursday, it came close to its intraday peak of 4793.30 points but failed to reach the record closing threshold of 4796.56 set on January 3, 2022,” the analyst added.
The year 2023 was “completely different than we expected,” summed up Ipek Ozkardeskaya from Swissquote. For the analyst, the biggest surprise comes from the United States, which many expected to be in recession, while gross domestic product (GDP) in the world’s largest economy rose nearly 5% in a year in the third quarter.
The SMI closed with a gain of 0.73% at 11,137.79 points, with a high of 11,143.59 points and a low of 11,085.70 points. For the year as a whole, the leading index SIX recorded a small increase of 3.81%. The SLI rose by 0.63% to 1776.68 points and was up 8.31% for the year. The broader SPI index rose 0.65% to 14,571.23 points and was up 6.09% in the last twelve months.
With the exception of Straumann (stable), all blue chips ended in the green.
The podium of the day is made up of the carriers Roche and Givaudan (+1.2% each), Swiss Life and Sandoz (+1.1% each) and Novartis (+1.0%). The good Roche (+0.9%) also ended up at the top of the table.
Nestlé (+0.7%) also supported the index. Over the year, the Vevey giant’s share price fell 9%, while Novartis’s rose 12%.
According to a study by management consultancy EY, the three Swiss heavyweights with a total value of $746 billion are still among the top 100 most important market capitalizations worldwide, even if they have all declined compared to last year’s ranking.
The podium of the year is dominated by VAT Group, which grew by a whopping 66.7%. UBS (+51.7%) secured the silver medal and enriched itself with the now defunct Credit Suisse. Annual bronze goes to Partners Group (+48.5%).
As for the biggest losers of the year among star stocks, it is the winner of the day, the carrier Roche (-27.06%), which is behind Lonza (-21.9%) and the good Roche (-15, 8%) is ahead. .
In the broader market, Evolva (+0.7%) will apply for delisting from the SIX Swiss Exchange after its acquisition by Canada’s Lallemand is completed at an initial price of 20 million Swiss francs, which is expected to be adjusted as the price increases or decreases .
At AMS Osram (-2.6%), Bank of Norway and UBS Fund Management increased their stake to 3.26 and 5.005%, respectively.
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