Swiss Market Ends Moderately Higher

(RTTNews) - Despite spending much of the day's trading session, the Switzerland stocks market closed higher on Friday thanks to some brisk buying at several counters in the last couple of hours.

The benchmark SMI, which slid to 10,640.38 in early trades, ended with a gain of 65.75 points or 0.61% at 10,772.37.

Holcim rallied more than 4%. Roche Holding ended nearly 2% up. Novartis gained 1.84%, while Swisscom, Credit Suisse and Alcon gained 1 to 1.3%.

Richemont shed about 3.7%. Swiss Re drifted down 2.36% after the reinsurer reported a net loss in its third quarter and the first nine months of fiscal 2022.

Geberit and Sika both ended higher by a little over 1%. Swiss Life Holding declined 0.8%.

In the Mid Price Index, Tecan Group, Galenica Sante and Temenos Group gained 1.2 to 1.3%. Barry Callebaut and Flughafen Zurich both ended higher by 0.8%.

Zur Rose ended lower by 4.6%. Kuehne & Nagel shed about 3.6%. AMS, Clariant, SIG Combibloc, Swiss Prime Site and Swatch Group lost 1.2 to 2.5%.

On the economic front, a report from the Swiss Economic Institute (KOF) said Switzerland's leading KOF economic barometer declined to 90.9 in October of 2022 from a downwardly revised 92.3 in September and well below market forecasts of 93.3. It was the lowest reading since June 2020 while being below its long-term average for the sixth time in a row.