Swiss Market Ends Higher For 5th Straight Day

(RTTNews) - The Switzerland stock market ended higher on Friday, extending gains to a fifth straight session, as worries about a global banking crisis continued to ease.

Data showing a surge in Swiss retail sales, and expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve will pause its monetary tightening next month, helped as well.

The benchmark SMI ended with a gain of 74.03 points or 0.67% at 11,106.24.

Logitech rallied more than 2.5%. ABB, Givaudan and Swisscom gained about 1.8%. UBS Group, Credit Suisse, Sika and Partners Group ended higher by 1 to 1.4%. Richemont advanced nearly 1%.

Among the stocks in the Swiss Mid Price Index, Schindler Ps and Schindler Holding both gained more than 2.5%.

VAT Group, Zur Rose, SIG Combibloc and Bachem Holding gained 2 to 2.25%. Georg Fischer, Swatch Group, Julius Baer, Galenica Sante, AMS and Ems Chemie Holding moved up 1 to 1.7%.

Temenos Group drifted down nearly 1%. Tecan Group, SGS and Flughafen Zurich posted modest losses.

In economic news, data released by the Federal Statistical Office showed retail sales in Switzerland grew 0.3% year-on-year in February 2023, recovering from a downwardly revised 1.7% fall in the previous month.

On a monthly basis, retail trade advanced 1.1%, the same pace as in the revised figure for January.