2023-04-21 16:16:05
Zurich (awp) – The Swiss stock market ended on a positive note on Friday. After hesitating on the direction to take at the start of the session, the SMI opted for green and even crossed the symbolic bar of 11,400 points and ended at a new high for the year. Holcim for blue chips and banks EFG and Vontobel caught the eye following the quarterly results, ahead of a week that promises to be particularly busy, with figures from Credit Suisse and UBS in particular.
In New York, Wall Street gave up some ground in the morning, investors remaining in a waiting position before the results of several technology giants next week.
“There hasn’t been much buying or selling conviction” since the start of the week, despite an avalanche of company results and a new burst of macroeconomic indicators, commented Patrick O’Hare, from Briefing.com.
The SMI ended with a gain of 0.61% at 11,460.58 points, the highest for the day and for the year and following a low at 11,371.42. The SLI dipped 0.40% to 1787.57 points and the SPI advanced 0.69% to 15,049.41 points. Of the 30 star stocks, 18 rose and 12 fell.
Alcon (+2.1%), Sonova (+1.8%) and Nestlé (+1.4%) finished on the podium of the day.
Nestlé creates a joint venture dedicated to its frozen pizza activities in Europe, with the French investment fund PAI Partners, in which the agri-food giant retains only a minority stake with equal voting rights to its partner.
The Vevey giant unveils its quarterly turnover on Tuesday and analysts expect organic growth of 7.3% and turnover of 23.2 billion Swiss francs.
Roche (+1.2%) and Novartis (+0.9%) also supported the index.
Novartis also reports quarterly results on Tuesday and analysts are expecting revenue of $12.4 billion and core profit of $3.2 billion.
Stifel reduced the target price of the Roche profit-sharing certificate and confirmed “hold”.
ABB (+0.1%) publishes its quarterly results on Tuesday. Analysts forecast revenue of $7.52 billion and net profit of $877 million.
Temenos (+0.7%) publishes data on Tuesday, following the close of trading. The turnover should be 226 million Swiss francs and the Ebit 56.9 million according to analysts’ forecasts.
In the losing camp, Geberit (-1.6% or 7.80 Swiss francs, excluding dividend of 12.60 Swiss francs) finished at the bottom, behind UBS (-1.2%) and Swiss Re (-1, 0%) and Credit Suisse (-0.9%).
UBS unveils its quarterly results on Tuesday, the day following the latest published by the still independent bank with two veils. For the bank with the three keys, analysts forecast a net profit of 1.7 billion dollars. Last February, the bank with two veils announced that it was expecting a heavy loss. The forced merger between UBS and Credit Suisse captures attention at all levels and will relegate results to the background. Analysts and investors will be primarily interested in statements regarding the union between the two banking giants.
The third bank, Julius Bär (+0.6%) gained ground.
Holcim (-0.3%) has revised its growth objectives upwards for the current financial year, following having closed the first three months on a turnover down 11.1% over one year to 5, 73 billion Swiss francs, due in particular to the sale of its Indian activities last September.
For Kühne+Nagel (-0.7%), which also revealed data on Tuesday, turnover is expected at 2.3 billion Swiss francs and Ebit at 516 million.
In the broader market, EFG International (+0.6%) saw its performance accelerate in the first quarter, thanks in part to higher global interest rates, which caused interest income to double .
The management bank Vontobel (+0.5%) increased its assets under management in the first quarter, but suffered a reflux of new money, due in particular to its asset management division, the Zurich establishment announced on Friday.
The investment company BB Biotech (-2.8%) posted a new net loss of 253.9 million Swiss francs in the first three months of 2023, following having already suffered a deficit of a third of a billion on the past financial year.
Banking group Valiant (unchanged) confirmed it expects higher profit for the current year, without specifying a range. In 2022, the Bernese had recorded a net profit of 129.5 million Swiss francs.
The following securities were traded excluding dividends: Bachem (+2.4% or 2.25 Swiss francs, dividend 0.75 francs), Bucher (-4.0% or -16.60 Swiss francs, dividend 13 Swiss francs), Coltene (-5.2% or -4.10 Swiss francs, dividend 3.30 Swiss francs), Georg Fischer (-1.5% or -1.05 francs, dividend 1.30 francs), Orior (-2, 5% or -2.10 Swiss francs, dividend 2.50 Swiss francs), Sulzer (-3.8% or -3.0 Swiss francs, dividend 3.50 Swiss francs) and Vetropack (-2.3% or – 1.05 francs, dividend 1.0 francs).
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