Swiss stocks - Factors to watch on March 29

Cosmo NV

29/03/2019 05:27

ZURICH/BERLIN, March 29 (Reuters) - The Swiss blue-chip SMI
 .SSMI  was seen opening 0.3 percent higher at 9,436 points on
Friday, according to premarket indications by bank Julius Baer
 JBPRE01 .
    Here are some of the main factors that may affect Swiss
stocks:
      
    NESTLE  NESN.S 
    A U.S. federal judge rejected the company's bid to dismiss a
revised lawsuit claiming that it defrauded consumers by filling
bottles of its Poland Spring water with ordinary groundwater.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N21F1Z9
    Additionally, Colgate-Palmolive  CL.N  is among the bidders
for the consumer arm of Nestle's skin-care business, Bloomberg
reported.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N21G049
    
    VAT GROUP  VACN.S  
    The Swiss vacuum valve maker on Friday said it is prolonging
shorter working hours for 400 production employees for another
three months through June 30, citing persistent soft market
conditions particularly in semiconductor equipment.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN21F15B

    COMPANY STATEMENTS  E-CH 
    * Valiant Holding  VATN.S  said Hanspeter Kaspar has been
named its new CFO  VATN.S 
    * Cosmo Pharmaceuticals  COPN.S  said its 2018 loss widened
as U.S. regulatory hurdles delayed its Methylene Blue product,
but it expects to return to profitability come 2020.  COPN.S  
    * Sika  SIKA.S  appointed a new head of construction,
Philippe Jost  SIKA.S 
    * Meyer Burger  MBTN.S  announced the acquisition of an
equity stake in Oxford Photovoltaics, as announced on March 21.
 MBTN.S  
    * Straumann  STMN.S  ClearCorrect business will pay $35
million to settle a patent dispute with Align Technology, a move
largely provisioned for but which means a one-time expense of 8
million francs in the first half of 2019.  STMN.S 
    * DKSH  DKSH.S  said it had completed its acquisition of
Auric Pacific's distribution business  DKSH.S  
    * Swiss rail maker Stadler, which is planning an IPO,
announced a U.S. contract worth more than $600 million
    * Aevis Victoria  AEVS.S  said its net loss in 2018 was 6.6
million francs, as revenues and operating profit fell.  AEVS.S 
    * Barry Callebaut  BARN.S  opened a new processing unit in
Abidjan, Ivory Coast.  BARN.S 
    * Molecular Partners  MOLN.S  said it will be presenting
pre-clinical data at the upcoming 2019 annual meeting of the
American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) in Atlanta.
 MOLN.S 

    ECONOMY  M-CH 
    * Swiss March KOF indicator due at 0800 GMT. Seen at 93.9
    * The Swiss National Bank remains committed to its expansive
monetary policy to tackle the "highly-valued" franc, governing
board member Andrea Maechler said, as the safe-haven currency
hit its highest value against the euro in 20 months.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nZ8N1UN02O

 (Reporting by Zurich newsroom and Berlin Speed Desk)
 ((+41 58 306 7336; zurich.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com))
 
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