The Swiss Market Index has taken more than a decade to achieve a feat that U.S. benchmarks have been pulling off with monotonous regularity -- reach a record.
The SMI on Friday climbed to a fresh intraday peak of 9,557.06, topping its June 2007 high. Its heavy weighting of defensive shares such as drugmaker Novartis AG and food company Nestle SA have made it a 2018 favourite at Morgan Stanley, whose strategists predict a “trickier” year for global equities and are overweight Swiss shares.
