Swiss stock market closes 2024 almost at breakeven
Keystone-SDA
The Swiss stock market made minimal gains on the last day of trading of 2024. After an annual high in August, December marked the fourth consecutive month of losses for the market’s benchmark index.
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After a slow start on Monday, the Swiss Market Index (SMI) moved into positive territory around lunchtime. In the afternoon, under the influence of the weak US market, prices temporarily fell below the 11,600-point mark before regaining this level at close of trading.
After reaching a high for the year of 12,484 points at the end of August, December marked the fourth consecutive month of losses for the benchmark index.
Despite a strong first half of the year, the SMI ended 2024 up just 4.2% – a meagre year by international standards. If the average dividend yield of around 3% is added to this, the Swiss stock exchange generated a return of slightly over 7% in 2024.
“This is in line with the previous year and the long-term average,” said one trader, quoted by the AWP news agency.
Other stock market indices, such as the Dax in Frankfurt or the Dow Jones in New York, posted significant double-digit gains for 2024. However, investors’ eyes were already focussed on the coming year before the last day of trading. “One wonders which topics will determine events in 2025,” said another trader.
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The leading SMI index closed 0.10% higher at 11,600.90 points. Following an increase of almost 8% in the first half of the year, the SMI fell by 3.3% over the last six months.
The SLI, which looks at the 30 most important share prices on the exchange, meanwhile closed the year 0.01% higher at 1917.12 points, while the broad-based SPI was 0.06% higher at 15,472.33 points. The annual performance of these two indices was +7.9% and +6.2% respectively.
There were few major price jumps before the turn of the year. ABB (-1.0%), which performed well over the year, lost most. Lonza, the year’s best performer, also lost 0.4%. Swatch (+0.8%) was the day’s winner, although it lost over a quarter of its value this year.
Top gains by Lonza
Looking at 2024 as a whole, Lonza (+51%) was the biggest winner; the previous year, its shares had lost more than 20%.
Reinsurer Swiss Re (+39%) and pharmaceutical firm Sandoz (+37%) followed in the table of gains. In fourth and fifth place were ABB (+32%) and Holcim (+32%), both with a strong foothold in the US.
SGS and Julius Baer each rose by around a quarter over the year, with the latter having had a very good four closing months in contrast to the market as a whole. Speculation about possible consolidation plans in the Swiss banking centre certainly helped.
However, Nestlé was primarily responsible for the SMI’s modest performance compared to foreign stock exchanges in the year to date, losing 23% despite a new CEO and new business direction. Other heavyweights Novartis (+5%) and Roche (+4%) fared better.
Adecco (-46%), Kühne+Nagel (-28%) and Swatch (-28%) posted the weakest annual performances.
Adapted from German by DeepL/dos
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