Markets Downward trend on the Swiss stock exchange halted

The Swiss stock market ended a volatile trading day on Tuesday with moderate losses.

After a positive start to trading, the SMI initially fell sharply in the course of the morning. In the afternoon, the leading index briefly returned to positive territory in the wake of a recovering Wall Street, but was unable to hold on to its gains.

After two days of heavy losses, there was at least some stabilization, but not enough for more, said one trader during the course of the day. On the previous days, a mixture of fears of a recession in the USA and a war in the Middle East, high valuations in the technology sector and the interest rate hike by the Bank of Japan had caused severe turbulence on the international markets. Market participants warned not to panic: It was more of a "summer storm" than a "tornado", one analyst expressed his conviction.

The SMI closed 0.28% lower at 11,510.46 points on Tuesday, having fallen to a daily low of 11,417 points in the course of trading. The broad SPI fell 0.20 percent to 15,346.10 points. A number of cyclical stocks fell sharply, such as the shares of goods inspection company SGS (-1.7%), logistics company Kühne+Nagel (-1.5%) and elevator manufacturer Schindler (-1.4%). The shares of luxury goods group Richemont also fell (-1.4%), while those of its competitor Swatch (-0.3%) held up better.

However, the indices were also weighed down by significant falls in Roche participation certificates (-1.3%). By contrast, the shares of competitor Novartis (-0.2%) were largely able to make up for interim losses and closed only moderately weaker. In contrast, the market was supported by the somewhat firmer shares of food group Nestlé (+0.3%).

Calm around the globe

The situation on the Swiss stock exchange is thus largely in line with that of other trading centers. The German leading index Dax, for example, has ended its three-day free fall. It closed on Tuesday with a moderate gain of 0.09 percent at 17,354.32 points. Meanwhile, the Eurozone's leading index, the EuroStoxx 50, recorded a gain of 0.08 percent, landing at 4575.22 points. And the British FTSE 100 rose by 0.23 percent to 8,026.69 points.

In the USA, the Dow Jones Industrial was 0.6 percent in the green at the close of European trading.

At the beginning of the day, however, the situation looked a little better - at least judging by the performance of the Asian stock exchanges. The Japanese stock market had recovered significantly after Monday's huge losses. Technology-heavy markets such as South Korea and Taiwan also made noticeable gains.

In addition to a technical countermovement, Japanese shares also benefited from the fall in the yen against the dollar. Japan's leading index, the Nikkei 225, climbed by 10.23% to 34,675.46 points. However, it did not make up for the previous day's losses, when it fell to its lowest level since November of the previous year.