ZURICH. The Swiss Market Index opened on Thursday at a fresh record, pushed on to 15,092.56, and then gave most of the gain back. By late morning it was only a fraction above Wednesday’s close. The session still matters. Zurich has now traded, for the first time, with 15,000 points behind it rather than in front of it.
Wednesday’s official close was 15,022.85, up 1.9 per cent, after a morning in which the index had sat near 14,740 and looked unimpressed by the US midterms. The afternoon did the repricing the morning refused. Thursday’s open was 15,061.17, about 0.26 per cent higher, and the high of 15,092.56 is the best level in the index’s 52-week range. Readings around 11:00, from the cash tape and from AWP, put the SMI somewhere between about 15,030 and 15,052. The exact print moved. The story did not: a record, then a stall.
Construction led, and ABB did not
The bid was in building and in luxury, not in a blanket rally. In the morning session Richemont was up about 3 per cent. Sika gained close to 2.9 per cent, Holcim about 2.3 per cent to around CHF 75, Amrize about 2 per cent and Geberit about 1.7 per cent. Dealers pointed to two things at once: a hope that a Democratic Congress will sand down trade friction, and a rotation out of the technology names that were hit overnight in Asia. Holcim was also reported to be buying Australia’s Burdett Group, a business with about 120 staff. That is a small deal. It fitted the tape.
ABB went the other way, down about 1.7 to 1.9 per cent, after China blocked the Chinese piece of its robotics sale to SoftBank. The $5.4 billion transaction is now in doubt, even if both companies say they are still working on it. Roche and Novartis were also softer. The split is the useful one. A record index with the country’s big industrial robot maker falling is not a vote that every Swiss risk has been retired.
Swiss Re beat the number, and the shares barely noticed
Swiss Re reported nine-month net income of USD 4.173 billion, which it rounded to USD 4.2 billion, up 3 per cent from USD 4.0 billion a year earlier. Return on equity was 22.5 per cent, the same as in the comparable period of 2025. Third-quarter profit was USD 1.3 billion. The AWP consensus for the nine-month figure had been about USD 3.97 billion, so this was a beat. The group said it is on track for its 2026 target of USD 4.5 billion.
Property and casualty reinsurance earned USD 2.2 billion, down 6 per cent, with a combined ratio of 77.3 per cent. Large losses were USD 941 million, including USD 640 million from natural catastrophes, chiefly the August earthquake in Colombia and Storm Kristin in Portugal in January. Life and health reinsurance was the bright line: net income up 43 per cent to about USD 1.5 billion, helped by favourable US mortality. Corporate Solutions made USD 714 million. The investment return was 4.0 per cent. The Swiss solvency test ratio was 259 per cent, shareholders’ equity USD 24.0 billion, and the USD 1.5 billion buyback is nearly finished. The shares were indicated 1.2 per cent higher before the open and then rose only about 0.4 per cent, to CHF 156.75. Analysts who liked the profit still flagged price pressure in casualty reinsurance. The market heard that sentence louder than the beat.
Oil under 100 dollars, and a Thursday that is no longer about the election
Brent was quoted near 94 dollars a barrel in the European morning, back under 100. On Wednesday morning it had still been above 103, before the price broke. A trader told the Swiss wires that Wednesday had “clearly pushed open the door to a possible year-end rally”, and that investors were willing to take more risk even with the geopolitics unresolved. Hopes of a fresh diplomatic push over the Iran war were part of that oil move. Whether the hope is earned is a different question, and the same traders said so.
The dollar was a little easier, with USD/CHF around 0.816 after a Wednesday close near 0.817. EUR/CHF sat around 0.917 to 0.918. The next catalysts are not in Bern. Desks were watching a Bank of England decision, with some looking for a rise in the policy rate from 3.75 per cent to 4 per cent, plus US weekly jobless claims. Friday’s US employment report is the data point of the week. The National Bank’s next assessment is still in December, and the policy rate is still zero. Wednesday morning, the SMI treated the midterms as a political fact. Thursday’s record says the afternoon changed its mind, and then thought again.