The Switzerland stock market ended on a weak note on Tuesday, bucking the largely positive trend seen across the European region.
The market drifted down despite data showing a faster than expected pace of GDP growth in the third quarter.
The benchmark SMI, which emerged into positive territory after an early setback, was quite sluggish till about an hour past noon, and then drifted down into the red.
The index ended the day with a loss of 27.22 points or 0.26% at 10,449.21, after moving between 10,421.10 and 10,495.18.
Lonza Group shares declined nearly 3%. Givaudan slid 1.7%, while Novartis, Partners Group and Geberit lost 1 to 1.1%.
On the other hand, Swiss Life Holding gained 2.4% and LafargeHolcim advanced 1.75%, while Credit Suisse, Swatch Group, Swiss Re and Zurich Insurance Group gained 1.2 to 1.4%. UBS Group ended 0.9% up.
Among the shares in the Mid Price Index, SIG Combibloc tumbled 4.8%. Kuehne & Nagel, Schindler Ps and Schindler Holding lost 1.6 to 2%, and Logitech ended lower by about 1.3%.
Among the gainers, Dufry rallied 6.3%, Temenos Group climbed 3.6% and BB Biotech advanced by 3.4%. Flughafen Zurich and VAT Group gained 2.3% and 2.2%, respectively, while Helvetia ended 1.7% up.
Shares of Swiss bakery business Aryzta gained about 2%. The company said it registered gradual improvements in its first-quarter revenue compared to preceding fourth quarter of fiscal 2020.
On the economic front, the report from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, or SECO, the Swiss economy expanded at a faster than expected pace in the third quarter following the gradual easing of the Covid-19 containment measures.
Gross domestic product grew 7.2% sequentially, offsetting the 7% decrease logged in the second quarter. This was also faster than the 5.9 percent expansion expected by economists.
Year-on-year, GDP was down 1.6% but much slower than the 7.8% fall seen in the previous quarter and economists' forecast of -3.3%.
On the expenditure-side, data showed that private consumption climbed 11.9%.
As expected, final domestic demand registered record growth of 8.9%, still falling short of its pre-crisis level at the end of 2019 by around 2%, the SECO said.
Imports of goods were up 11.2% and that of services climbed 9.9%. Exports of services gained 1.4%, while exports of goods grew 6.9% in the third quarter.
The Swiss central bank expects the Swiss economy to shrink by around 5%.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
