After swinging between gains and losses till about a couple of hours past noon, the Switzerland market ended modestly higher on Monday as several frontline stocks found support and held on to their gains.
The benchmark SMI ended higher by 38.05 points or 0.33% at 11,685.19, the day\'s high. The index dropped to a low of 11,623.47 in early trades.
Roche Holding gained 1.6%. Givaudan and Zurich Insurance Group both gained nearly 1%. Novartis, Swiss Re and Alcon ended higher by 0.5 to 0.8%.
Sonova drifted down 1.83%. Lonza Group and Sika ended lower by 1.38% and 1.29%, respectively. UBS Group, Logitech International and Holcim closed modestly lower.
In the Mid Price Index, Meyer Burger Tech rallied more than 6.5%. Barry Callebaut and Clariant climbed 1.9% and 1.67%, respectively. Flughafen Zurich gained 1.27%, while Swiss Prime Site, PSP Swiss Property and Helvetia posted moderate gains.
Straumann Holding ended lower by 3.35%. VAT Group, Belimo Holding, Lindt & Spruengli, Schindler Holding and Temenos Group lost 1.27 to 1.9%.
Data from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs showed the consumer confidence indicator in Switzerland fell to 42.3 in February from a marginally revised 41.1 in January.