Tag Archives: Editor’s Choice

Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. Swiss watch exports posted the biggest quarterly drop since 2009 as the industry faces declining demand across all its main markets. © Ateliermadman | Dreamstime.com Shipments fell 8.9 percent in the first quarter, adjusted for working days, according to data from Switzerland’s customs office. Exports declined 16 percent in March to 1.5 billion francs ($1.5 billion), the lowest level for that month in five years, the Federation of the Swiss Watch...

Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. The east German village of Glashuette doesn’t look like much: just a handful of streets stretching up and down a narrow valley from a bare station platform, where trains depart once an hour for the 45-minute trip to Dresden. Scratch a bit deeper, though, and you’ll find that the town of 7,000 is home to the greatest concentration of world-class watchmakers outside of Switzerland – with a business that’s growing even as Swiss producers retrench. A....

Investec Switzerland. The SMI continued its struggling upward trend this week and is expected to finish slightly higher on Friday, in-line with global equity markets. Stocks held on to early gains despite concerns that the European Central Bank (ECB) and People’s Bank of China may roll back stimulus measures as the global recovery continues. © Photomall | Dreamstime.com The increase in oil prices, signs of a stabilizing economy in China and brighter corporate earnings...

Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. Roche Holding AG said its most advanced experimental drug to harness the immune system in the fight against cancer may win U.S. regulatory approval this year, becoming the first such treatment to help the roughly 430,000 people diagnosed annually with bladder cancer. © Daniel Schreurs | Dreamstime.com The medicine, called atezolizumab, may generate around $3 billion in sales by 2020, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. It will face competition from...

Brought to you by Investec Switzerland. The Swiss National Bank could reduce the amount of leeway it grants banks on its negative deposit rate in a bid to prevent an already “significantly overvalued” franc from strengthening, President Thomas Jordan said. © Peterpolak | Dreamstime.com Still, reducing the threshold — currently 20 times an institution’s minimum reserves — isn’t an imminent step, Jordan said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Washington on Saturday, where he...

Investec Switzerland. The SMI is set to finish this week more than 2% higher, showing modest outperformance against global equity markets as cyclical companies from banks to luxury goods surged on improving investor sentiment.  European shares experienced their longest winning streak since early March this week buoyed by a strong performance from the banking sector and signs that China’s economy is finally stabilizing. © Rad100 | Dreamstime.com Global banking stocks...

Investec Switzerland. Nestle SA, the world’s biggest food company, reported first-quarter sales that beat analysts’ estimates, as Nescafe and Nespresso were boosted by marketing to ward off competitors in coffee. Sales rose 3.9 percent on an organic basis, the Vevey, Switzerland-based maker of KitKat bars and Perrier water said in a statement Thursday. Analysts had expected 3.6 percent, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Nestle expects “further...

Investec Switzerland. Sika AG minority shareholders won an important round in their 16-month battle to ward off a sale to a French competitor after re-electing half a dozen directors to the board who support their cause. At Sika’s annual meeting in Baar, Switzerland on Tuesday, Chairman Paul Haelg restricted voting rights of the founding Burkard family, allowing six directors including himself to be re-elected to the nine-member board for another year. © Presse750 |...

Investec Switzerland. The SMI is set to finish the week (+1.15%), significantly higher, having outperformed global equity markets (-1.13%), thanks to the strong performance of healthcare giants Novartis and Roche. Global equities fluctuated during the week receiving a boost towards the end of the week as investor sentiment improved, supported by stronger crude oil prices and comments from the US Federal Reserve. On Thursday, oil extended gains following the biggest...

Tribune de Genève. The following is a translated summary of an article published by the Geneva newspaper, Tribune de Genève, relating to the Panama Papers. They swear an oath to uphold the law. Yet it appears some Swiss lawyers haven’t. As the Panama Papers reveal, some of them have administered offshore companies for clients placed on sanction lists by the Swiss Federal Council. While others have worked for foreign political leaders, or those close to them, who are suspected of corruption....