Swiss shares were seen opening lower on Friday, in line with other European bourses following a broad and sharp selloff on Thursday, when Wall Street closed at three month lows after the release of weak U.S. jobs data.
The blue chip SMI index was seen opening 19 points lower at 6,378 points, according to pre-market data from bank Clariden Leu.
The following are some of the main factors expected to affect Swiss stocks on Friday:
JULIUS BAER
Julius Baer said the flow of client money into the Swiss private bank slowed last year as international tax clampdowns prompted many off-shore customers to repatriate funds.
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SYNGENTA
Syngenta, the world’s largest agrochemicals company, plans to return some $750 million to shareholders this year, unexpectedly announcing a share buyback as well as an unchanged dividend.
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UBS
SWATCH GROUP
Swatch group CEO says group is aiming for best ever year in 2010, but will have to watch out for exchange rates.
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ZURICH, Feb 5 (Reuters) – The Swiss franc dropped from a 15 month high versus the euro on Friday, with traders in Asia saying the Swiss National Bank had stepped in and bought euros to push the Swiss unit lower.
The euro has been under pressure in the past month on concerns about sovereign debt problems in the euro zone, first in Greece and then in Spain and Portugal, exacerbating the dilemma of the SNB, which is keen to prevent a strengthening in the franc to help economic recovery.
"Perhaps the SNB is willing to tolerate a bit stronger (franc)
because the Swiss economy has picked up,” said Ursina Kubli, currency strategist with Sarasin.
“It makes sense because at night the volumes are thinner,” Kubli said of the Asian intervention talk.
The SNB declined to comment.
To combat the worst recession in decades, in March the SNB launched unconventional measures — including rock-bottom interest rates, corporate debt purchases and foreign exchange intervention. Markets suspect the SNB has intervened at least 6 times.
Traders said the SNB bought euros for francs in a rare foray into Asian trading time, the central bank said to have traded on trading platform EBS.
The franc eased 0.4 percent against the euro compared with the New York close, trading at 1.4695 per euro at 0726 GMT.. It had soared to 1.4559 earlier in the session, its highest since Oct. 2008.
Kubli said the SNB may last have intervened a week ago, when the franc was at 1.47 per euro.
“That raised the question as to whether that’s the new exchange rate target. I think that they look at the reasons and the tempo of the rise,” she said, referring to Greece’s fiscal woes that have hammered the euro.
“I expect them to step in at 1.45 at the psychologically important level, they have to react or their policy is no longer credible.”
Against the dollar, the franc eased. The dollar index , a measure of the greenback against six other major currencies, earlier surged to its strongest in seven months.
The franc was down 0.4 percent against the dollar at 1.0706 per dollar.
The euro was also pressured by comments from European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet that many members of the euro zone will have large and sharply rising fiscal imbalances. For details see
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