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After an early plunge, the Switzerland stock market rallied smartly into positive territory Friday morning, but faltered into the red after moving along the flat line for about a couple of hours.<\/p>\n
The market eventually ended in the red with several stocks drifting lower as the mood remained bearish amid rising concerns over inflation, and on surging yields on U.S. Treasuries.<\/p>\n
The benchmark SMI ended with a loss of 136.65 points or 1.28% at 10,522.22, slightly off the day’s low. The index touched a high of 10,686.02 a little before noon.<\/p>\n
UBS Group, SGS, LafargeHolcim, ABB, Swisscom, Sika and Zurich Insurance Group lost 2 to 2.7%. Alcon, Swiss Re and Geberit ended nearly 2% down.<\/p>\n
Swiss Life Holding, Lonza Group, Credit Suisse and Givaudan lost 1.6 to 1.85%, while Nestle and Novartis ended lower by 1.25% and 1.1%, respectively.<\/p>\n
Swatch Group and Roche Holding, up 0.6% and 0.3%, respectively, were the only gainers in the SMI index.<\/p>\n
In the Midcap section, PSP Swiss Property, Barry Callebaut, Schindler Holding, Swiss Prime Site, Straumann Holding, Adecco, Temenos Group, BB Biotech and Lindt & Spruengli ended lower by 2.5 to 3.6%. Dufry, up 1.3%, had another good session.<\/p>\n
In economic news, Switzerland’s economic growth eased sharply in the fourth quarter as the restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus<\/span> pandemic weighed heavily on the service sector, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, or SECO, said Friday.<\/p>\n Gross domestic product gained 0.3% sequentially, much slower than the 7.6% expansion seen in the third quarter. GDP was forecast to climb 0.1%. On a yearly basis, GDP dropped 1.6%, following a 1.4% decrease in the third quarter. However, this was slower than the 2.1% decrease economists’ had forecast.<\/p>\n A measure signaling turning points in Switzerland’s economy<\/span> rose above its long-term average in February, suggesting economic activity is set to pick up in the months ahead.<\/p>\n The Economic Barometer rose to 102.7 points in February, which is slightly above its long-?term average of 100, from 96.5 in January, the think tank KOF said Friday. Economists had expected a modest increase to 96.6.<\/p>\n The KOF attributed the strong increase mainly to the improvement in the service sector indicators. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Market Analysis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n