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Headlines
- Swiss Market Performance: The Swiss market saw a slight increase on Monday, with the benchmark SMI up by 0.12% to 12,451.48 points, recovering from earlier declines.
- Top Gainers and Losers: Swisscom, Zurich Insurance Group, and several other major companies showed gains, while Sandoz Group and Straumann Holding experienced declines.
- Economic Highlights: Retail sales in Switzerland unexpectedly rose by 2.7% year-on-year in July 2024, surpassing forecasts, while the Manufacturing PMI showed modest improvement but continued to indicate contraction.
Despite a challenging session that saw the market in the red for much of the day, the Swiss stock market managed a modest increase by the end of Monday. The benchmark SMI finished with a gain of 14.89 points, or 0.12%, reaching 12,451.48. Earlier in the day, the index had dipped to 12,367.29.
Swisscom (OTC:SCMWY) experienced a rise of 1.21%, and Zurich Insurance Group closed nearly 1% higher. Notable advances were also seen in VAT Group, Lindt & Spruengli, ABB, Schindler PS, Novartis, Kuehne + Nagel, Holcim, and Geberit, with gains ranging from 0.4% to 0.75%.
Conversely, Sandoz Group, Straumann Holding, SIG Group, and Lonza Group ended the day lower, with declines between 1.2% and 1.47%. Julius Baer saw a decrease of 0.81%, while Swatch Group (OTC:SWGAY), Logitech International, SGS, Nestle, and Sonova closed down between 0.4% and 0.6%.
On the economic front, Switzerland's retail sales grew unexpectedly by 2.7% year-on-year in July 2024, far exceeding the forecasted decline of 0.2%. This increase marks the first rise in retail sales since April and the fastest growth rate since February 2022. Retail sales also saw a 1.4% month-on-month rise in July, the highest in 13 months.
The Swiss procure.ch and Credit Suisse Manufacturing PMI improved to 49 in August 2024, surpassing both the previous month’s and market estimates of 43.5. This was the 20th consecutive month of contraction, though the mildest since January 2023.
