Swiss pharma major Novartis has completed the spin-off of its generics and biosimilars business Sandoz through a dividend-in-kind distribution to holders of Novartis shares and American Depositary Receipts or ADRs. The proposed spin-off was approved by Novartis shareholders in September. Every holder received one Sandoz share for every five Novartis shares held or one Sandoz ADR for every five Novartis ADRs held at the business close of October 3. The company believes that the spin-off helped it position itself well for the sustained top-and bottom-line growth. With its new strategy, Novartis wants to focus on four core therapeutic areas: Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolic (CRM), Immunology, Neuroscience, and Oncology. Sandoz shares will be listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and will commence trading under the symbol 'SDZ' and Sandoz ADRs will be quoted and traded on OTCQX, the US over the counter market under the symbol 'SDZNY'.

After struggling to find its direction until midday Wednesday, the Swiss stock market rose and was up for a while but faltered in the last hour and eventually closed slightly down. The benchmark SMI, which climbed to 10,832.19, ended the day's session with a marginal loss of 7.18 points or 0.07% at 10,756.19. New Sandoz shares tanked about 17.5% on debut. Novartis gained about 1.8%. Geberit ended 1.7% down. Roche Holding and Kuehne & Nagel both ended nearly 1% down. Partners Group gained 1.1%. Logitech ended nearly 1% up. Sika climbed 0.61%. In the Mid Price Index, Belimo Holding, Adecco, BKW and Meyer Burger Tech lost 2.6 to 3.1%. Dufry ended 2.1% down. Tecan Group, Clariant, Lindt & Spruengli, Ems Chemie Holding and Julius Baer also ended notably lower.

European stocks closed slightly weak after a volatile session on Wednesday as interest rate concerns and rising bond yields continued to weigh on the markets. Weak data from the European region, data showing the U.S. service sector growth slowed in September, and private sector employment grew less then expected last month, weighed as well. The pan European Stoxx 600 ended 0.14% down. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 dropped 0.77% and France's CAC 40 ended flat, while Germany's DAX edged up 0.1%. Switzerland's SMI ended 0.07% down. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye closed weak. Denmark, Greece, Netherlands and Poland ended higher. In the UK market, Royal Mail, Entain, BAE Systems, BP, Fresnillo and Whitbread ended lower by 3 to 4%. Imperial Brands, Associated British Foods, Barratt Developments, ITV, Ashtead, Glencore, Royal Dutch Shell, NEXT and Rio Tinto lost 2 to 2.6%. IAG, Tesco, Aviva, Just Eat Takeaway.com, J Sainsbury, Relx, Smurfit Kappa Group gained 2 to 4.5%. In the German market, Fresenius Medical Care shed about 4%. Henkel, Brenntag, Zalando, Siemens Energy and Fresenius lost 1 to 2%. Infineon rallied about 4%. Symrise gained nearly 2%. Siemens Heathineers, E.ON, Bayer and Adidas also ended notably higher. In Paris, TotalEnergies and Thales both ended nearly 2%. Legrand, Alstom, Renault, ArcelorMittal and Carrefour also closed weak. Capgemini, STMicroElectronics, Orange, Hermes International, Publicis Groupe, Edenred and LVMH gained 1 to 2.3%.

The autumn bond rout eased Wednesday, dragging Treasury yields lower and bringing calm to the stock market after an intense selloff that kicked off the fourth quarter. The S&P 500 wavered for much of the day before finishing up 0.8%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 127.17 points, or 0.4%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added around 1.4%, with gains accelerating in the final hour of the trading session. Investors have been parsing a wave of economic data ahead of the monthly jobs report due Friday. The latest reading from payroll firm ADP Wednesday showed private-sector hiring cooled much more than expected in September. U.S. private-sector employment rose by a tepid 89,000 in September, the smallest increase in 2½ years. Shares of technology and consumer-discretionary companies like Tesla and Google-parent Alphabet propelled stocks higher in trading Wednesday. Meanwhile, a sharp drop in oil prices gave a boost to shares of several cruise companies and airlines, while dinging energy stocks. The S&P 500’s energy sector fell 3.4%, and Devon Energy, Marathon Oil and Schlumberger were among the worst individual stock performers. Wednesday’s decline continues a rough October for energy stocks. The sector is down about 5.2% so far this month and has lost about 2.2% so far this year.

On Thursday, the stock exchanges in East Asia and Australia rebounded from the recent price losses, some of which were heavy. While the mainland Chinese stock exchanges remain closed for the whole week for the holiday, the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong rises by 0.8 per cent. The sub-index of technology stocks gains 1.2 per cent. Among the individual stocks in the sector, Baidu rises by 1.8 and Tencent by 1.7 per cent. The share price of the electric car manufacturer Xpeng recorded a strong gain of 5.8 per cent.

The yield on the 30-year U.S. Treasury bond briefly breached 5%, while Germany’s 10-year bund yield touched 3% for the first time in 12 years. Treasurys rallied later in the session, pulling yields for bonds maturing in two to 30 years lower for the day. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.735%, notching the biggest one-day decline in more than a month.

UBS raises Asos to Buy (Neutral) – Target 550 (660) GBp
JP Morgan lowers Henkel target to EUR 71 (73) – Neutral
Bank of America lifts Orange to Buy (Underperform) – Target EUR 13 (8.80)

Produced by MBI Martin Brückner Infosource GmbH & Co. KG on behalf of Swissquote. All news is acquired with journalistic accuracy. No liability is assumed for delays or errors.