SIX welcomed Alcon, another leading company from the life sciences sector, on 9 April 2019. The global eye care giant is already the second new company to join the Swiss stock exchange this year – and certainly not the last one. Most noteworthy is the size of this spin-off from Novartis AG: the opening price of CHF 55.00 means the total market capitalization of the newly listed Alcon AG reached CHF 26.9 billion.
In this context, SIX has carried out an extraordinary adjustment to the composition of various indices, notably Switzerland’s most important equity benchmark, the Swiss Market Index SMI®. This has triggered a number of portfolio adjustments, which resulted in a remarkably high trading volume for the new security.
On the day of the Alcon listing, trading in blue chips on the Swiss stock exchange has more than doubled in volume compared to the previous day, jumping from CHF 2'457.86 million to CHF 4'965.94 million; this number is also significantly higher than the YTD daily average trading volume of CHF 3'006.22 million.
Record Volumes
Furthermore, SIX has seen a record day in its non-displayed liquidity pool, SwissAtMid. With a volume of CHF 338 million on 9 April, the previous record of CHF 153 million, dating from 18 October 2018, has been surpassed more than twice. This contributes to an already impressive start by the biggest non displayed liquidity pool for Swiss blue chips, with CHF 5.6 billion traded in Q1 alone.
In addition, SIX had made two observations on the day of the Alcon listing. First of all, the market share of the Swiss stock exchange reached 78.00%, representing an increase of 6.76 points over an already impressive YTD average of 71.24% and highlighting both its exceptional liquidity and its role as the reference market for Swiss securities. Secondly, the SMI has been pushed to a temporary all-time high of 9'628 points.
Direct Access to International Capital and Liquidity
All these numbers highlight the positive effects a single listing can have – and how crucial a faultlessly performing exchange is for the functioning of financial markets. The Swiss stock exchange – owned and managed by SIX – provides companies with access to experienced, highly capitalized Swiss and international investors and high liquidity. This is how SIX plays a key role in financing growth and safeguarding the long-term prosperity of the Swiss economy.