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Despite struggling to make it to the positive zone during much of the day’s session, the Switzerland stock market ended on a firm note on Monday with investors indulging in some brisk buying at several counters past mid afternoon. <\/p>\n
The benchmark SMI rebounded after a weak start, but faltered again soon and stayed sluggish for well over a couple of hours past noon before climbing higher. The index ended the session with a gain of 81.21 points or 0.74% at 11,048.58.<\/p>\n
Richemont rallied 3% and Partners Group gained about 2.8%. Roche Holding shares gained 2.15% after the company sait that a Phase 3 study on its monoclonal antibody drug Tecentriq met the primary endpoint of providing disease-free survival to lung cancer patients.<\/p>\n
Lonza Group shares moved up 2.1%, while Givaudan and SGS ended higher by 1.2% and 1.15%, respectively. Swisscom, Geberit and Alcon also closed on a firm note. <\/p>\n
Novartis, which declined sharply early on in the session, recovered to settle marginally up. The company announced that it has appointed Karen L. Hale as Chief Legal Officer.<\/p>\n
Credit Suisse, UBS Group, Swiss Re and LafargeHolcim finished modestly lower.<\/p>\n
In the Mid Price Index, AMS, Straumann Holding and Logitech gained 2.3 to 2.7%. Barry Callebaut, Schindler Holding, Tecan Group, Lindt & Spruengli, Schindler Ps, Kuehne & Nagel, Galenica Sante, VAT Group and Julius Baer moved up 1.2 to 2%.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, Dufty ended 4.8% down, BB Biotech closed lower by 3.6% and Flughafen Zurich declned 3.1%.<\/p>\n
On the vaccine front, Swiss drugs regulator Swissmedic has approved Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, according to reports. This is the third shot approved by the country after vaccines from Pfizer \/ BioNTech and from Moderna. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Market Analysis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n