Swiss Market Ends Modestly Higher After Choppy Session

(RTTNews) - Despite staying quite sluggish till around mid-afternoon, the Switzerland stock market closed modestly higher on Thursday thanks to some brisk buying at select counters in the final hour of the session.

The market gained amid renewed optimism over artificial intelligence, and U.S. President Donald Trump's comments that the flare-up in tensions in the Middle East will end very quickly.

The U.S. military reportedly attacked Iranian targets for a second straight day and President Donald Trump said the flare-up will end very quickly. U.S. airstrikes hit about 90 targets across Iran as Tehran targeted Gulf states.

The benchmark SMI settled with a gain of 40.95 points or 0.29% at 14,215.30, after scaling a low of 14,136.94 and a high of 14,238.17 intraday.

VAT Group climbed 4.2%. Logitech International moved up nearly 4%. ABB ended 2.82% up.

UBS Group, Partners Group, Richemont and Lonza Group gained 1.7%-2%. Swiss Life Holding and Straumann Holding moved up by about 1.1% and 1%, respectively. Sonova, Geberit, Helvetia Baloise Holding and SGS posted modest gains.

Lindt & Spruengli shed 2.5%. Novartis and Swiss Re closed lower by 1.27% and 1.13%, respectively. Nestle, Sandoz Group, Sika, Swisscom, Julius Baer and Schindler Ps drifted down by 0.4%-1%.