Swiss Market Ends Marginally Up

On Monday, September 2, 2024, the Swiss stock market staged a late-session recovery to close marginally higher, with the benchmark Swiss Market Index (SMI) gaining 14.89 points, or 0.12%, to settle at 12,451.48. The index had spent most of the day in negative territory, touching an intraday low of 12,367.29 before late buying support lifted several heavyweight components. Swisscom led the gainers with a 1.21% advance, while Zurich Insurance Group added nearly 1%. Other advancers included ABB, Holcim, and Novartis, which helped offset declines in Sandoz Group, Straumann Holding, and Lonza Group. Economic data released on the same day provided unexpected positive support for Swiss equities. Retail sales in Switzerland rose 2.7% year-on-year in July 2024, easily surpassing market expectations of a 0.2% decline and marking the fastest growth rate since February 2022. Additionally, the procure.ch and Credit Suisse Manufacturing PMI increased sharply to 49 in August from 43.5 in July, demonstrating the softest manufacturing contraction in 20 months.