Swiss Market Settles On Firm Note

(RTTNews) - After swinging between gains and losses for about an hour after the opening bell, Swiss stocks steadied and stayed positive till the end of the session on Thursday with select counters continuing to attract investors. A report showing an improvement i Swiss consumer sentiment helped.

The benchmark SMI ended with a gain of 50.61 points or 0.4% at 12,822.24. The index touched a low of 12,768.79 and a high of 12,834.82 in the session.

VAT Group surged nearly 4%. Galderma Group closed with a gain of about 2.1%, and ABB ended 1.83% up.

UBS Group, Swiss Re and Swiss Life Holding gained 1.1 to 1.3%.

Kuehne + Nage gained 1.2% after the company said Apex Logistics will acquire a majority stake in Andes Integración Logística.

Zurich Insurance, Julius Baer, Novartis, Alcon, Geberit and Swisscom also closed higher.

Straumann Holding ended down by 2.17%. Amrize, Swatch Group, Nestle, Logitech International and Roche Holding closed modestly lower.

A report from UBS & CFA Society said the Swiss investors' sentiment index climbed to 12.2 in November, the highest reading since January, from -7.7 in the prior month. The improvement occurred despite the current conditions index slipping to -4.9 from 0.0 in October.