Swiss Market Ends Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - The Swiss stock market ended modestly lower on Thursday, after staying in negative territory for much of the trading session as investors largely refrained from making significant moves, looking ahead to further talks between U.S. and Iran to end the conflict in the Middle East.

The benchmark SMI ended with a loss of 46.41 points or 0.35% at 13,173.17, nearly 80 points down from the session's high of 13,252.12.

Sandoz Group and Galderma Group ended down by 3.83% and 3.1%, respectively. Amrize ended nearly 2% down.

VAT Group ended nearly 1.5% down. The group reported first quarter sales of 221 million Swiss francs, down 20% year on year, or down 9% on a constant currency basis. VAT confirmed the positive outlook provided at the full-year announcement in early March.

Roche shed about 1%. The company said that it would start a late-stage study for a gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy to seek approval in the European Union after drug regulators in the bloc turned it down last year.

Straumann Holding, Novartis, Geberit, UBS Group, Alcon and Lindt & Spruengli lost 0.6%-1.1%.

Logitech International climbed more than 2.5%. SGS ended up by about 2.4%. Sika closed 1.3% up, while Kuehne + Nagel, Swiss Life Holding, Partners Group and Nestle posted modest gains.

In economic news, data from the Federal Statistical Office showed Switzerland's producer and import prices increased for the first time in eleven months in March.

The producer and import price index posted a monthly increase of 0.2% in March, reversing a 0.3% decrease in February. Rising prices were particularly evident for petroleum products, as well as crude oil and natural gas. On a yearly basis, producer and import prices fell 2.7%.