The 2023 edition of Swiss equities is heading towards a positive conclusion.

In contrast to the miserable previous year, significantly more individual stocks made a good profit in the year now coming to a close. Investors were left behind by Roche and Nestlé, for example.

Among the 30 blue chips listed in the SLI, the shares of VAT stood out as the clear winner for the year with a current gain of around 64%. Like Logitech (+42%), they benefited from the boom in tech-related stocks in connection with the current “hot topic” of artificial intelligence.

With an increase in value of a good 50 percent each (as at 19.12.), two financial stocks, Partners Group and UBS, followed Logitech on the podium. UBS benefited on the one hand from the increase in mass resulting from the CS takeover and on the other hand from confidence that the integration of CS will succeed. Of course, CS shareholders were left empty-handed.

Some cyclical stocks, such as Holcim (+40%), ABB (+34%) and Kühne+Nagel (+33%), also benefited to an above-average extent from the year-end spurt in Swiss equities, which was spurred on by the emerging fantasies of interest rate cuts for the coming year. All reached their high for the year shortly before the end of the year.

Many blue chips with double-digit profits

Overall, the investor achieved a double-digit gain over the year with more than half of the 30 SLI shares, outperforming inflation by a wide margin. Straumann, Sonova, Geberit, Swiss Life and Sika, for example, each rose by more than a fifth.

Investors were less fortunate with the defensive heavyweights, which explains the less encouraging performance of the overall market by international standards. While Novartis still rose by 7%, Nestlé (-10%) and Roche GS (-16%) suffered heavy losses.

Those who had bet on Roche bearer shares even had to forfeit 27% of their investment. Together with Lonza (-23%), Roche I formed the final duo among the major Swiss equities. The luxury goods stocks Swatch (-12%) and Richemont (-1%) were held back by the sluggish economy in China.

Price doubling possible

As usual, there were even greater swings in both directions among second-line stocks. For example, the share prices of two smaller healthcare companies more than doubled, Kuros Bioscience (+147%) and DocMorris (+162%). Doc Morris recently received a boost from the imminent approval of electronic prescriptions in Germany. However, the rise in DocMorris should be put into perspective, as the share price was still over CHF 500 in 2021. It currently stands at just under 70 francs.

Those who bought One Swiss Bank shares at the closing price of 2022 also almost doubled their investment. Here, too, the caveat applies that this only just recouped the losses from the previous year.

Numerous companies disappear from the stock exchange

One Swiss Bank, Evolva, Igea Pharma and konkursite Kinarus are among the companies that will soon be delisted. Because the companies were taken over, Crealogix, Datacolor, Schaffner and Von Roll will also soon disappear from the stock exchange.

Stock market participants were also unhappy with industrial stocks such as Meyer Burger (-64%), Aluflexpack (-52%) and OC Oerlikon (-37%).

©Keystone/SDA