Shares and Sponsored Foreign Shares

A share represents an ownership interest in a company. Shareholders can participate through changes in the share price and, where declared, dividends. Share ownership can also carry voting rights, depending on the share category and company rules. The article A Day at the Exchange explains how shares are traded.

Investors buy shares to participate in potential company growth, price appreciation and dividends. Returns are not guaranteed and prices can fall because of company results, sector developments, economic conditions or expectations. Major Swiss shares are represented in benchmarks such as the Swiss Market Index.

A share price arises from the interaction of buy and sell orders. Earnings, announcements, economic data, interest rates and expectations can influence those orders. Centralized and transparent interaction on an exchange supports price discovery and creates observable reference prices.

Sponsored Foreign Shares allow selected international shares to be traded on the Swiss market in Swiss francs and during Swiss trading hours. A sponsor supports admission and liquidity through quotations. Investors remain exposed to the international company and may face currency and foreign-market risks. See SIX market data.

The exchange collects orders during pre-opening. At the opening auction, it determines the price that enables the greatest executable volume. During continuous trading, matching orders execute electronically. Selected segments conclude with a closing auction and Trading-at-Last. These phases are described in A Day at the Exchange.

Blue-chip, mid-cap, small-cap, Sparks and Sponsored Foreign Shares open at 09:00 CET. Their closing auction starts at 17:20 and runs at approximately 17:30. Trading-at-Last continues until 17:40 for blue-chip, mid-cap, small-cap and Sparks shares, but not for Sponsored Foreign Shares or secondary-listed shares. See the official trading hours.