Swiss Market Ends Slightly Up

(RTTNews) - After a choppy ride till around noon, Swiss stocks gained in strength on Wednesday, but following some brisk selling in the closing minutes, ended the day's session with just a small gain.

The benchmark SMI ended up 9.49 points or 0.08% at 11,910.81. The index, which dropped to 11,883.04 around mid morning, climbed to 11,977.61 in late afternoon trades.

Partners Group rallied about 5.1%, driven by a jump in total assets under management to $174 billion in the first half from the year-ago $149 billion. The company as forecast total new client assets of $26 billion to $31 billion for the full year.

Swiss Re, Zurich Insurance Group, Swatch Group and Lonza Group gained 1.1 to 1.3%.

Richemont gained more than 1% after the company said its fiscal first-quarter group sales increased year over year to 5.41 billion euros from 5.27 billion euros, thanks to a sharp 11% jump in its Jwellery Maisons segment.

VAT Group ended down 3.48%. Holcim, ABB, Sika and Julius Baer lost 1.4 to 1.7%. Sandoz Group, Kuehne + Nagel, Amrize, Novartis, Geberit and Straumann Holding closed lower by 0.8 to 1.1%.