The Swiss stock market has not escaped the general trend. The flagship SMI index plunged below the symbolic bar of 12,000 points, losing more than 1,100 points in the process compared to its historic peak of January 3.
You have to go back to last October to find the flagship index of SIX so low. Tensions around Ukraine led to a wave of selling in global markets.
The situation also rubbed off on the franc, which strengthened significantly and even briefly fell below 1.03 francs per euro in the followingnoon.
For Ipek Ozkardeskaya, analyst at Swissquote, “the franc is supported by significant inflows into safe havens, as tensions on the borders of Ukraine increase and the markets reinforce their downward trend” on the eve of a two-day monetary meeting of the US Federal Reserve (Fed).
Craig Erlam of Oanda noted that geopolitical tensions around Ukraine have weighed on markets and heightened investor risk aversion. Added to this is the meeting Tuesday and Wednesday of the Monetary Committee of the US Federal Reserve, which might, with the situation at the Ukrainian-Russian border, be decisive for the stock market week.
The SMI ended down 3.84% at 11,881.30 points, with a low of 11,878.278 points and a high of 12,304.21 points at the start of the session. Of the 30 star stocks, Vifor (+0.3%) is the only winner of the day.
Grübel reviews
Swiss Re (-0.3%), Swisscom (-0.5%) and Swatch (0.7%) resisted the best among the losers, the only stocks not to have fallen by more than 1%.
Nestlé (-2.5%) held up better than Novartis (-3.9%) and Roche (-4.4%).
The volatile AMS Osram (-7.4%) finished at the bottom, behind Credit Suisse (-6.8%) and the good Schindler (-6.6%).
The former managing director of the bank with two veils, Oswald Grübel, sharply criticized the current management in the German-speaking Sunday press. “When a company experiences so many crises over the years, it means that its management is bad,” said the man who led the number two Swiss bank between 2003 and 2007.
Investors have sanctioned the fact that Schindler announced Friday evening the resignation of general manager Thomas Oetterli, following 12 years at the head of the group, including six as boss.
Julius Bär (-6.3%) also lost more than 6%, while UBS (-4.7%) fared “better”.
This article has been published automatically. Source: ats/awp
