Many stock markets closed with one of the worst results in years. “It’s just book losses,” he might say. At least for anyone who doesn’t have to sell stock out of necessity in the current year. However, the display of the repository notification is not very pretty. There is currently little reason to expect greater stock gains in 2023. Perseverance is required.
A look back: Germany’s leading index, the Dax, lost more than twelve percent during the year. Leading French index CAC 40 lost 9.5 percent. It was the worst result since 2018 for both indices. In the US, Wall Street even experienced its deepest decline since 2008 in the 2022 trading year.
Dark red US indices: The Dow Jones lost about nine percent. The broad-based S&P 500 index fell nearly 20 percent and the Nasdaq tech index fell as much as 30 percent.
London Stock Exchange with Mini-Plus
Key Asian markets also lost ground during the year. Hong Kong and Shanghai stock markets both fell more than 15 percent. Tokyo will record minus 9.4 percent in 2022.
Rising energy prices on the London Stock Exchange alone provided an annual increase of 0.9 percent.
Bad year statement for stocks? This is based on interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England. Increases in interest rates aim to curb rising inflation worldwide.
Craig Erlam, analyst at trading platform Oanda, speaks of “a miserable end” to “a miserable year on the stock markets”. 2022 marked the “end of an era” of low interest rates. Erlam said this has been replaced by “soaring inflation and interest rates”, as well as “great economic uncertainty and the realignment of energy markets after the Russian invasion of Ukraine”.
Outlook of the Swiss stock market
“The age of cheap money is over,” the online bank Swissquote describes in one sentence. A lot has changed in a year. In the statement, it was stated that the Fed’s rate hikes to combat inflation went much further than most people could imagine. Therefore, the bear market phase – falling prices – was heralded shortly after the start of the year.
Many market participants assume that at least the first half of 2023 will be tough on the stock markets.
Switzerland’s leading index SMI is dark red: Compared to the closing level at the end of 2021, the result is a minus 16.7 percent year on year.
On the last trading day (December 30, 2022), shares of major bank Credit Suisse lit the red lantern among blue chips, as has often happened this year. Many portfolio managers sold the worst-performing standard stock at the end of the year. The price of the crisis-stricken big bank has lost more than two-thirds of its value in 2022. And CS closed the overall strong 2021 stock market year with more than 20 percent negative.
Zurich alone shares the highlight
Following Credit Suisse, tech-savvy Temenos and AMS Osram shares were at the bottom of the annual list of Swiss stocks, down around 60 percent, while Lonza, Givaudan, Sika, Geberit, VAT, Partners Group and Straumann also fell. over 40 percent.
In addition to insurance company Zurich (+11 percent), only shares of UBS, Novartis and Holcim closed the year with a positive balance.
Meanwhile, the two heaviest stocks, Nestlé and Roche, could also end a weak year. Nestlé is about 16 percent cheaper and Roche is 23 percent cheaper.
In the broad market, Zur Rose, Addex, Obseva and Talenthouse are the whipping boys in the annual rankings, each with losses of over 90 percent.
With an increase of over 125 percent and thus more than double the route, construction technology company Meier Tobler was the clear winner. (AFP/SDA/uro)