WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Save for a brief while at the start, the Switzerland market languished in negative territory on Thursday, as investors digested the European Central Bank's monetary policy announcement, and looked ahead to quarterly earnings updates.
The benchmark SMI ended down 86.32 points or 0.7% at 12,247.61. The index, which edged up marginally at the start, dropped to a low of 12,234.44 within the next half an hour, and then stayed weak till the end of the session.
ABB ended 5.6% down after orders dropped 3% to $8.44 billion in the second quarter from prior year's $8.67 billion.
VAT Group tanked 9.4%. Novartis ended lower by 4% despite the company raising its profits guidance.
Logitech International, Partners Group and Richemont lost 1 to 1.25%. UBS Group and Sonova both ended lower by nearly 0.9%, while Alcon and Holcim drifted down 0.65% and 0.45%, respectively.
Swatch Group shares gained 3.12%. Lonza Group and Roche GS climbed 1.65% and 1.61%, respectively. Sika, Geberit, SIG Group, Lindt & Spruengli, Julius Baer, Straumann Holding, Nestle and SGS advanced 0.6 to 1.1%.
In economic news, Switzerland's foreign trade surplus increased in the second quarter as exports grew amid a fall in imports, data from the Federal Customs Administration showed.
The trade balance rose to CHF 12.4 billion in the second quarter from CHF 9.4 billion in the first quarter. In the same period last year, the surplus was CHF 9.05 billion.
In real terms, growth in exports accelerated to 3.5% in the June quarter from 1.1 percent in the previous quarter. At the same time, imports fell 0.8% versus a 1.6% recovery in the first quarter.
Nominal exports grew 6.6%, reaching a new high in the June quarter, the agency said.
In June, the trade surplus rose to CHF 4.9 billion from CHF 4.2 billion in May, data showed. In nominal terms, exports climbed 1.2% monthly, while imports dropped by 2.2%.
Another report from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry showed that watch exports decreased 7.2% on a yearly basis to CHF 2.3 billion in June. There was also a 3.3% decline in sales during the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2023.
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