Swiss Market Ends Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - Despite struggling a bit midway through the day's session, the Switzerland stock market ended modestly higher on Thursday thanks to some brisk buying at a few frontline counters in the final hour.

Amid rising hopes the Federal Reserve will soon tone down the pace of its monetary tightening, global stocks moved higher today.

The benchmark SMI ended with a gain of 26.96 points or 0.24% at 11,258.95. The index, which advanced to 11,288.29 in early trades, dropped to 11,222.05 around late afternoon before edging higher.

Richemont rallied nearly 4.5%. Sonova climbed 1.65%. Sika, Partners Group and Lonza Group gained 1 to 1.25%. Holcim and Roche Holding posted modest gains.

Zurich Insurance Group and Nestle lost 1.27% and 1.17%, respectively. ABB, Givaudan, Swiss Re and Logitech ended lower by 0.4 to 0.7%.

Among the stocks in the Mid Price Index, Georg Fischer surged nearly 2%. Julius Baer gained 1.47%, while Adecco, Swatch Group and Belimo Holding gained 1 to 1.2%.

Barry Callebaut drifted down nearly 4%. PSP Swiss Property ended 1.7% down, while Lindt & Spruengli, Swiss Prime Site, AMS, Tecan Group and SIG Combibloc lost 1 to 1.27%.