Credit Suisse Group AG’s imminent exit from the Swiss Market Index is symbolic of the decreasing importance of financial companies to the country’s stock market.
Whereas 20 years ago, financials represented roughly 30% of the SMI Index, that proportion has fallen to 16% today. It will decline more — albeit only fractionally — when Credit Suisse is removed this week following its takeover by UBS Group AG, which will be left as the only bank in the benchmark.
According to Frederic Vivien, senior relationship manager at Atlantic Advisors Suisse, the weight of banks in the index has been declining since the 2008 financial crisis. Instead the gauge has become more heavily tilted toward industrials, materials and information technology stocks.
That transition will continue when Credit Suisse is replaced by freight forwarder Kuehne + Nagel International AG, a change that was announced on June 5 by the SIX stock exchange.
According to Mathieu Racheter, head of equity strategy at Julius Baer, the move “underpins the increasing importance of logistics and global supply chain management.”
His view is echoed by Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, who said logistics “is a highly promising sector” and that K+N “could give the SMI a better spin.”
For Credit Suisse, whose takeover was completed today, it’s the end of an era. The stock has been a part of the Swiss Market Index since the benchmark was formed in 1988, when it traded as Schweizerische Kreditanstalt, though its weighting has plummeted along with its stock price in recent years. It currently stands at less than 0.3%, while UBS has a weighting in the benchmark of about 5%.
The lender’s shares will be delisted from the Swiss SIX Stock Exchange on June 14 and the New York Stock Exchange on June 12.
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