Swiss equities concluded the trading week on a positive note as markets are abuzz with the European Central Bank further easing its monetary policy in December. The Swiss Market Index edged up 0.18% on Friday's close amid a quiet day of local economic news. Analysts at ING stated that "the ECB [on Thursday] cut the deposit rate by 25bp as expected, but the communication was more dovish than anticipated, with unanimous support for the decision." They noted that "markets now price in a 25% chance of a 50bp cut in December, which seems overly ambitious but we wouldn't push back until the US elections.
Global dynamics still drive the back-end of the EUR curve." Meanwhile, the ECB's fourth-quarter survey of professional forecasters showed that respondents now expect headline inflation to stand at 1.9% in 2025, down 0.1 percentage point from the previous projection. The forecasters' 2.4% inflation expectation for 2024 remains unchanged. Back in Switzerland, Novartis secured a positive recommendation from the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use for Kisqali as an adjuvant treatment for adults with HR+/HER2- early breast cancer at high risk of recurrence, including those with node-negative disease.
The Swiss drugmaker expects to receive the European Commission's final approval within two months. The stock ticked up 0.02% at closing. Additionally, Comet gained 4.27% after posting a 45.6% year-over-year surge in third-quarter net sales to 113.2 million francs. Looking ahead, the technology company expects full-year 2024 net sales to be at the lower end of its 440 million francs to 480 million francs guidance range..