Category Archive: 3.) Investec

SMI: Trump win boosts pharma and financials

A rally in pharmaceutical and banking shares helped boost the Swiss Market Index this week as investors weighed the prospect of a Trump’ presidency in the United States. Stocks in the healthcare sector jumped after Donald Trump’s victory as drug pricing reforms, proposed by Hillary Clinton, are now unlikely to materialize.

Read More »

How Switzerland came top of the 2016 young worker’s index

Where you are born makes a big difference to the chances of getting a job when you leave school. In 2015, youth unemployment rates in some OECD countries such as Greece (49.8%), Spain (48.3%) and Italy (40.3%) were all close to 50%. In others such as Germany (7.2%), Austria (10.6%) and Switzerland (8.6%), youth unemployment was far lower. Why? The Young Workers Index 2016, an annual report by PWC, offers some insights.

Read More »

Swiss government opposes initiative to transform monetary system

The Swiss government urged rejection of a popular initiative that would transform the monetary system and end fractional-reserve banking, according to its dispatch to Parliament. The measure seeks to put the central bank solely in charge of money supply and forbid commercial banks from granting loans that aren’t fully backed by deposits, effectively ending the way banking has been conducted for centuries.

Read More »

Europe stocks split on Trump win with pharma gaining

The region’s largest industry group headed for its biggest jump in more than 14 months, tempering losses for equity benchmarks after Donald Trump won the race to govern the region’s biggest export market. Novo Nordisk A/S and Shire Plc rose more than 5 percent, after investors punished the shares in recent weeks amid disappointing earnings and speculation Hillary Clinton would push for drug-price controls as president. Citigroup Inc. had cut its...

Read More »

Merkel says Brexit talks mustn’t impact Swiss-EU negotiations

Swiss talks with the European Union about immigration restrictions mustn’t be impacted by the U.K.’s decision to leave the bloc, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. “In the EU, we should carry on negotiations with Switzerland in the same way as we would have if there were no question on Britain,”.

Read More »

Brexit is making it too expensive to go skiing in Alps

The promise of snow across the Alps this weekend won’t be enough to lift the gloom at some of Europe’s top ski resorts as the pound’s post-Brexit slide dents British bookings. Jon Fricker, a property developer in Beaconsfield, west of London, said some of his friends would probably back out of their annual piste reunion if the cost of a long weekend in the Portes du Soleil ski area straddling the border between France and Switzerland climbs much...

Read More »

SMI down as investors eye the US election

The SMI is set to finish the week notably lower as investors continue to dump equities amid worries about the implications of next week’s US election, the trajectory of interest rates and mixed corporate earnings.

Read More »

UBS reports drop in wealth profit as Ermotti lowers costs

UBS Group AG Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti pledged to continue cost cuts after profit at the wealth-management business fell and the securities unit was hurt by a slump in equities trading. Pretax profit rose 11 percent to 877 million Swiss francs ($883 million) from 788 million francs a year earlier on lower expenses, the Zurich-based bank said in a statement Friday.

Read More »

Brexit brings specter of common EU tax plan, and bodes poorly for Switzerland’s immigration negotiation

Ireland is facing another tax battle with the European Union and this time it will have to fight its own corner. Less than two months after the European Union ordered Ireland to claw back a record 13 billion euros ($14.2 billion) from Apple Inc., saying the nation illegally allowed the iPhone maker to reduce its tax rate, the European Commission will propose legislation for a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base on Tuesday.

Read More »

Pharma giants drag SMI stocks down

A weak performance from Swiss pharma giants pulled the Swiss Market Index down again this week after investors dropped stocks in the sector on lackluster earnings reports. The peripheral European stocks and Japan managed to buck the trend this week, global stock markets remain under pressure in the run up to US election.

Read More »

Syngenta slumps on concern of protracted ChemChina EU review

Syngenta AG shares tumbled on concern that China National Chemical Corp.’s $43 billion takeover of the Swiss herbicide and pesticide maker risks regulatory delays in the European Union. ChemChina didn’t submit so-called remedies in the EU’s early-stage review of the deal by the Oct. 21 deadline, the European Commission’s press office said by phone on Monday.

Read More »

Roche revenue gains as sales of breast cancer drugs soar

Roche Holding AG’s third-quarter revenue rose 4.5 percent as its trio of breast-cancer therapies offset stagnating sales of some of its older drugs. Sales climbed to 12.5 billion Swiss francs ($12.6 billion), the Basel, Switzerland-based company said in a statement on Thursday. That compared with the 12.6 billion-franc average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Roche doesn’t report third-quarter earnings.

Read More »

Nestle forecasts slowest sales growth in decade as pricing ebbs

Nestle SA forecast the slowest full-year sales growth in more than a decade as food companies worldwide struggle against consumer resistance to price increases. Revenue will gain about 3.5 percent on an organic basis in 2016, the Vevey, Switzerland-based maker of Nespresso coffee said Thursday, abandoning a goal for an increase of about 4.2 percent. Growth in the consumer-goods industry is “relatively fragile,” Chief Financial Officer...

Read More »

Swiss Markets Review: SMI underperforms global stocks

The Swiss Market Index is set to finish the week largely unchanged while global stocks gain on positive US third quarter earnings results, favourable central bank statements and a rallying oil price. The S&P 500 saw its biggest advance since September on Wednesday after US banking giants Citigroup, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo all posted better-than-expected quarterly results.

Read More »

Swiss cross-border shopping declines

Residents of German-speaking Switzerland appear to doing less shopping across the border, something that has also been observed in Geneva. According to the newspaper the Handelszeitung, Swiss cross-border shopping peaked in 2015 and local customs posts have seen a decline in VAT and duty collected since March.

Read More »

Global stocks at lowest levels since July

The Swiss Market Index is set to finish the week lower, but outperforming global stocks, thanks to a strong week of luxury good stocks. Global stocks fell to their lowest levels since July on Thursday as investors rushed to the safety of government bonds, yen and gold after renewed concerns over weakness in the Chinese economy and as the Federal Reserve considers raising interest rates.

Read More »

More Swiss visas for non-Europeans in 2017

Visa quotas for non-EU workers will rise next year. The increased quotas will include 3,000 B-permits and 4,500 L-permits, 1,000 more than this year. These limits are still lower than in 2014, when Swiss politics turned against the free movement of workers from the EU.

Read More »

Swiss central bank can cut rates further if needed, says bank president Jordan

The Swiss National Bank can cut interest rates further into negative territory if needed, President Thomas Jordan said. “We have still some room to go further if necessary,” Jordan said Saturday in an interview in Washington with Bloomberg Television’s Francine Lacqua. Jordan, who is attending the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, noted that the bank has already pushed rates quite far.

Read More »

Weekly Swiss Markets: Stocks fluctuated on central bank statements

The Swiss Market Index is set to finish the week mainly unchanged, outperforming global stocks modestly while markets fluctuated on speculation that the US Fed will increase interest-rate later this year.

Read More »

Switzerland’s central bank offers a glimpse behind the curtain

The Swiss National Bank is offering a rare look into how it sets monetary policy. A video of SNB President Thomas Jordan and fellow members of the governing board shows them beginning their quarterly policy assessment discussing the state of the economy with about 30 people.

Read More »