BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The Swiss Market Index (SMI) of the Switzerland Stock Exchange ended higher on Thursday, extending gains to a third successive session, despite lingering concerns about U.S.-China trade tensions, U.S. government shutdown and Brexit uncertainty.
The benchmark SMI ended up 40.37 points, or 0.45%, at 8,914.14, the highest close since 5 December 2018.
On Wednesday, the SMI ended up 49.04 points, or 0.56%, at 8,873.77.
Among the prominent gainers today, Sika and Geberit moved up 2.5% and nearly 3%. Temenos ended nearly 2% up and Partners Group added about 1.5%.
Nestle, Lonza, Sonova and Swisscom gained 0.9 to 1.2%. LafargeHolcim and Givaudan also ended notably higher.
Julius Baer declined by about 0.6%, fter having moved up nearly 3.5% in the previous session.
Most of the markets across Europe ended lower today, although losses were just marginal in several exchanges.
Asian stocks ended mixed on Thursday as a strong start to the U.S. earnings season and hopes for progress on the Brexit front helped investors shrug off worries about U.S.-China trade relations.
The U.S. market recovered after a weak start, but the major indices were still struggling to move any significantly up in positive territory as concerns about global growth and the likely impact of the ongoing government shutdown weighed on sentiment.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2019 AFX News
