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The Switzerland stock market ended slightly higher on Monday, bucking the largely weak trend seen across Europe. <\/p>\n
Investors, besides closely monitoring the developments surrounding China Evergrande, digested the data on Swiss inflation and retail sales for the month of September and August, respectively.<\/p>\n
The benchmark SMI, which spent much of the day’s session in positive territory, ended with a gain of 6.98 points or 0.06% at 11,583.25. The index edged down to 11,536.49, hit a high of 11,641.60 in late afternoon trades before paring gains to settle almost flat.<\/p>\n
Swisscom climbed 1.65%. Roche Holding gained about 1.25%, while Nestle, Richemont and Novartis posted modest gains.<\/p>\n
Alcon and Partners Group both ended lower by about 2.5%. Geberit declined more than 1%, while ABB, Lonza Group, Givaudan, SGS and Logitech lost 0.5 to 0.8%.<\/p>\n
In the Swiss Mid Price Index, Kuehne & Nagel ended more than 5% down. Sonova, AMS, Straumann Holding, VAT Group, Dufry and Georg Fischer lost 2 to 2.4%.<\/p>\n
OC Oerlikon Corp, Tecan Group, BB Biotech, Julius Baer, Temenos Group and SIG Combibloc also ended notably lower.<\/p>\n
Switzerland’s consumer price inflation remained stable in September, growing 0.9% year-on-year, same as seen in August, data from the Federal Statistical Office showed. Economists had expected a 1.1% rise.<\/p>\n
On a monthly basis, consumer prices remained unchanged in September, after a 0.2% increase in the previous month. Economists had forecast a rise of 0.2%.<\/p>\n
The core CPI rose 0.5% yearly in September and grew 0.1% from the previous month.<\/p>\n
The EU measure of harmonized index for consumer prices, or HICP remained unchanged monthly in September and increased 0.8 percent from a year ago.<\/p>\n
Switzerland’s retail sales increased in August, preliminary data from the Federal Statistical Office showed. Retail sales adjusted for sales days and holidays rose 0.5% year-on-year in August.<\/p>\n
On a monthly basis, seasonally adjusted retail sales grew 1.1% in August. In nominal terms, retail sales increased 0.2% annually in August and gained 1.4% from a month ago. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Market Analysis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n