Swiss stocks concluded the trading week on an upbeat note, with the Swiss Market Index up 0.36%, amid another busy day of earnings and economic data releases. Switzerland's KOF Economic Barometer came in at 101.7 points in February, down from the revised 103 points in January. While all production-side indicator bundles are under pressure, the demand-side indicator bundles for foreign demand and private consumption are helping to soften the negative developments.
KOF highlighted that after an increase in previous months, the barometer remains above its medium-term average. This suggests that, despite headwinds, the Swiss economy shows a robust outlook. Meanwhile, retail sales in the country ticked down 0.1% month over month in January, following the revised 0.5% rise in the prior month, government data showed.
On a yearly basis, retail sales rose 1.3% from the revised 2.1%. On the corporate side, building materials company Holcim, machinery industry company Bucher Industries, and specialty chemicals group Clariant were among the Swiss companies that reported financial results. Holcim saw an increase of 3.01% amid a strong outlook for 2025 across all of its business segments, with the planned listing of its North American unit remaining on track to be realized by the end of the first half.
The company, however, logged a 2.2% year-over-year decline in net sales to 26.41 billion francs and a 4.4% decrease in net income group share to 2.93 billion francs for 2024. Conversely, Clariant experienced a 5.44% drop in shares after reporting lower sales for 2024 and mentioned that it anticipates local currency sales growth for 2025 will be at the lower end of its 3% to 5% forecast range amid a challenging economic environment..