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The Switzerland market pared some intraday gains and ended marginally up on Wednesday as stocks stayed a bit sluggish past mid afternoon.<\/p>\n
The mood in the market remained positive thanks to a firm trend across European markets<\/span> following some impressive earnings updates, and slightly easing geopolitical concerns after the U.S. and Ukraine agreed on a minerals deal.<\/p>\n The benchmark SMI settled with a gain of 17.50 points or 0.13% at 13,042.51, after climbing to a high of 13,100.22.<\/p>\n Adecco soared 12.3%. The staffing company reported higher profit in its fourth quarter, and the Board of Directors proposed to distribute a dividend. Looking ahead, for the first quarter, Adecco expects gross margin to be higher sequentially, in line with normal seasonality.<\/p>\n In its fourth quarter, Adecco’s net income grew 6% to 73 million euros from last year’s 68 million euros. Earnings per share were 0.43 euro, up 7% from prior year’s 0.40 euro. Adjusted earnings per share were 0.63 euro, compared to 0.75 euro last year.<\/p>\n Alcon climbed 5.44%. Alcon’s fourth-quarter revenue increased 6.2% to $2.477 billion from $2.332 billion last year.<\/p>\n Swiss Re gained about 3.75%. Richemont, Geberit, Holcim and UBS Group ended higher by 2.1 to 2.5%.<\/p>\n Givaudan and Julius Baer both gained about 1.85%. Logitech International, Swiss Life Holding, Partners Group, VAT Group and ABB moved up 1 to 1.4%.<\/p>\n Sika gained nearly 1%. Zurich Insurance Group and Schindler Ps posted modest gains.<\/p>\n Novartis lost about 3.7%. The investment entity of the Sandoz family, Emasan AG, has sold a substantial portion of its stake in Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, netting 2.6 billion Swiss francs. Goldman Sachs, the bookrunner on the deal, confirmed the transaction.<\/p>\n Lindt & Spruengli declined nearly 2.5%. Swatch Group, Nestle, SIG Group and SGS lost 1.2 to 1.7%.<\/p>\n A report from UBS & CFA Society Switzerland said the Swiss investors’ sentiment index fell by 14.3 points from the previous month to 3.4 in February of 2025, pointing to a sharp decline in the level of optimism for Swiss market players. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n