Swiss Market Ends Marginally Up

(RTTNews) - The Switzerland market, which stayed positive till well past noon on Thursday, suffered a mild setback in the penultimate hour of the session, but recovered to end the day's session marginally higher.

Investors reacted positively to the European Central Bank's decision to lower interest rate by 25 basis points. The market also digested Swiss unemployment data.

The benchmark SMI, which dropped to 12,267.25 from a high of 12,365.19, settled at 12,317.62, gaining 19.12 points or 0.16%.

Holcim rallied 3.25%. Sandoz Group climbed 3.16% and Alcon gained 2.05%. Geberit ended 1.7% up, while VAT Group, Logitech International and Schindler Ps gained 1.35%, 1.25% and 1.1%, respectively. Novartis and Swisscom posted modest gains.

Richemont drifted down 2.1%. Swatch Group closed down 1.49% and Lindt & Spruengli lost 1.1%. Adecco, SGS, Kuehne + Nagel and Partners Group ended moderately lower.

On the economic front, Switzerland's unemployment rate held steady in May after falling slightly in the previous month, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, or SECO, said.

The unadjusted unemployment rate stood at 2.8% in May, the same as in April. That was in line with expectations.

In the corresponding month last year, the jobless rate was 2.3%. The youth unemployment rate, which is applied to the 15-24 age group, edged down to 2.4% from 2.5%.

Data also showed that the seasonally adjusted jobless rate rose to 2.9% from 2.8%.