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Swiss Market Rules & Guideline You Need To Know

Swiss Market Rules & Guideline You Need To Know

The primary stock market index in Switzerland is the blue-chip Swiss Market Index (SMI), which consists of twenty of the largest and most liquid stocks from the Swiss Performance Index (SPI). The SMI is a price index and does not account for dividends.

Introduction of the Swiss Market

On June 30, 1988, the SMI was first released, with a base score of 1,500 points. On July 2, 2019, it closed above the 10,000-point threshold for the first time.

On June 17, 2021, it achieved the 12,000-point milestone. After dropping more than 20%, it entered a bear market on September 22, 2022, and is now in one.

This put an end to the bull market, which on December 28, 2021, had achieved an all-time high closing price below $13,000

Once a year, its composition is evaluated. There are two mid-caps and eighteen large-caps as of September 2022. Real-time calculations are made.

The instant a new transaction takes place in a security that is part of the SMI, the index level is updated and shown.

The SMI comprises 85% to 90% of the trading turnover of Swiss and Liechtenstein stocks listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and around 70% of the capitalization of the free-float Swiss equity market.

It serves as a benchmark for many mutual funds, index funds, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and is also the underlying index for derivative financial instruments, including options, futures, and structured products.

The SMI is registered with the European Securities and Markets Authority and, along with other SIX indices, was endorsed under the EU Benchmarks Regulation in 2020.

This endorsement allows it to be used as a basis for financial products marketed in the EU.

Rules & Regulation Swiss Market

Acceptance criteria Swiss Market

The SPI serves as the SMI’s underlying universe, from which candidate constituents are chosen. To be approved for inclusion in the SMI, an issue must fulfil strict criteria related to market capitalization and liquidity.

It must, on the one hand, account for a minimum of 50% of the average liquidity of the issues that make up the SPI.

However, it must have a minimum free-float capitalization that is at least 0.45% of the total SPI capitalization. The deciding elements in the quarterly rankings are therefore capitalization and trading volume.

Every year on the third Friday in September, the content of the index is examined.

Fixed number of 20 securities Swiss Market

The SMI comprises a fixed number of 20 securities as of the ordinary review date in September 2007. Prior to this date, the index contained 25 listings.

It is worth noting that the number of constituents of the index (20) is below the generally accepted minimum sample size of 30 required to reach statistical significance.

Capped weightings Swiss Market

In 2017, SIX Swiss Exchange modified the rules of the SMI to address the issue where the top three constituents (Nestlé, Roche, Novartis) represented over 60% of the index capitalization.

The change introduced capped weighting, ensuring that no constituent’s weight in the SMI index could exceed 18%.

Adjusting any weight that exceeds 18% down to that value is done every quarter.

However, if a constituent reaches a weight exceeding 20% during a quarter (intra-quarter breach), then the weight is brought back to 18% without waiting for the next quarterly review.

During the transition, changes were progressively implemented in steps of at most 3% per quarter to make the transition smoother.

Additionally, a new index, the SPI 20, was created to continue indexing the 20 SMI constituents without any caps.

SMI Constituents Swiss Market

Current constituents

As of June 13, 2023, the SMI index consists of the following 20 stocks. The ranking is based on free-float capitalization as of June 13, 2023.

The first ten weights are as of April 28, 2023, and the other weights are as of March 23, 2020. The most recent update following the regular review took place in June 2023, when Kuehne + Nagel replaced Credit Suisse Group.

RankNameIndustryTickerCantonWeighting in %
1Nestlé SAFoodNESN.SWVaud19
2Roche Holding AGPharmacyROG.SWBasel17
3Novartis International AGPharmacyNOVN.SWBasel17
4Compagnie Financière Richemont SALuxury GoodsCFR.SWGeneva7
5Zurich Insurance Group AGInsuranceZURN.SWZurich6
6UBS Group AGBanksUBSG.SWZurich/Basel5
7ABB LtdElectrical equipmentABBN.SWZurich4
8Lonza Group AGChemistryLONN.SWBasel4
9Sika AGChemistrySIKA.SWZug3
10Alcon IncPharmacyALC.SWFribourgPrivate Equity
11Givaudan SAChemistryGIVN.SWGeneva3
12Holcim LimitedBuilding materialsHOLN.SWSt. Gallen2
13Swisscom AGTelecommunicationsSCMN.SWBern2
14Partners Group Holding AGPrivate equityPGHN.SWZug2
15Swiss Reinsurance Company LtdInsuranceSREN.SWZurich2
16SonovaMedical devicesSOON.SWZurich2
17Geberit AGSanitary engineeringGEBN.SWSt. Gallen2
18Swiss Life Holding AGInsuranceSLHN.SWZurich1
19Logitech International SAComputer hardware and softwareLOGN.SWVaud1
20Kuehne + NagelLogisticsKNIN.SWSchwyz1
Swiss Intex

SMI family


SMI refers to a family of indices that include the SMI itself and the SMI MID, which comprises the next 30 large-caps and mid-caps, and the SMI Expanded, encompassing all 50 shares.

These indices come in various variations. For instance, the SMI, a price index, also exists as a performance index known as the SMI Cum Dividend (SMIC), which factors in dividend distributions.

History of Switzerland Market Index

History of index constituents

DateEvent
June 2007The ranking as of 30 June 2007 (according to average capitalization and the turnover achieved during one year, i.e. from 1 July 2006 through 30 June 2007) determined which companies would remain within the SMI after the number of issues was changed to 20. On 5 July 2007, SWX announced that Ciba Specialty ChemicalsLonza GroupGivaudanSGS and one of the two classes of shares of Swatch Group would leave the SMI as of 24 September 2007 leaving 20 securities in the index.
September 2009Swiss Life was replaced by Transocean.
June 2010Synthes was replaced by Geberit following the merger with Johnson & Johnson.
September 2011Lonza Group replaced by Givaudan.
June 2012Transocean was replaced by Swiss Life.
January 2016Actelion was replaced by Lonza Group after Actelion’s purchase by Johnson & Johnson. In the same month, Sika AG replaced Syngenta after its purchase by ChemChina.
May 2017Actelion replaced by Lonza Group after Actelion’s purchase by Johnson & Johnson. In the same month, Sika AG replaced Syngenta after its purchase by ChemChina.
June 2018Sika announced a 1:60 stock split. Before this change, it was the SMI constituent with the highest price per share.
April 2019Adecco was replaced by Partners Group after the ordinary index review.
September 2020Lonza Group and SGS replaced Nobel Biocare and Bâloise.
May 2021LafargeHolcim renamed to Holcim.
September 2021Swatch Group was replaced with Logitech.
September 2022SGS SA was replaced with Sonova.
June 2023Nobel Biocare and Bâloise were replaced by Lonza Group and SGS.
History of index constituents

Historical values

The following table shows the annual development of the Swiss Market Index since 1988

YearClosing levelChange in Index
(Points)(%)
19881,435.40
19891,778.10342.7023.87
19901,383.10−395.00−22.21
19911,670.10287.0020.75
19922,105.40435.3026.06
19932,956.70851.3040.43
19942,629.30−327.40−11.07
19953,299.20669.9025.48
19963,942.20643.0019.49
19976,265.502,323.3058.93
19987,160.70895.2014.29
19997,570.10409.405.72
20008,135.37565.277.47
20016,417.84−1,717.53−21.11
20024,630.75−1,787.09−27.85
20035,487.81857.0618.51
20045,693.17205.363.74
20057,583.931,890.7633.21
20068,785.741,201.8115.85
20078,484.46−301.28−3.43
20085,534.53−2,949.93−34.77
20096,545.911,011.3818.27
20106,436.04−109.87−1.68
20115,936.23−499.81−7.77
20126,822.44886.2114.93
20138,202.981,380.5420.24
20148,983.37780.399.51
20158,818.09−165.28−1.84
20168,219.87−598.22−6.78
20179,381.871,162.0014.14
20188,429.30−952.57−10.2
201910,616.942,187.6425.95
202010,703.5186.570.82
202112,875.662,172.1520.29
202210,729.40−2,146.26-16.67
202311,137.79408.393.81
values

Standards

The table below displays the historical milestones of the Swiss Market Index. Please note that the latest values are not final: italicized values indicate that they may be revisited if the bear market continues, while values in parentheses suggest that they will be revisited if a bull market is reentered (i.e., the previous peak is reached again). Other values may be revisited in the event of a crash, assuming a threshold of -50%.

To maintain a logarithmic scale, the table uses increments similar to exchange ticks: 1 between 5 and 10, 2 between 10 and 20, 5 between 20 and 50, 10 between 50 and 100, and so on.

(Closing price)ValueFirst seenLatest seen
Calibration1,500.0030 June 19882 February 1991
Record low1,279.0014 January 1991
Milestone1,600.002 November 198824 December 1991
Milestone1,800.002 August 19896 October 1992
Milestone2,000.0014 December 199214 December 1992
Milestone2,500.005 October 199330 March 1995
Milestone3,000.005 January 199425 September 1995
Milestone3,500.007 March 19962 August 1996
Milestone4,000.0016 January 199714 March 2003
Milestone4,500.0017 February 199710 March 2009
Milestone5,000.005 May 199711 August 2011
Milestone6,000.008 July 199729 June 2012
Milestone7,000.0025 February 19983 January 2013
Milestone8,000.001 July 19989 December 2016
Milestone9,000.0012 January 200730 March 2020
Milestone10,000.002 July 20193 November 2020
Milestone12,000.0017 June 202117 May 2024
Maximum close12,970.5328 December 2021(December 28, 2021)
Record high12,997.153 January 2022
historical milestones of the Swiss Market Index.
SMI performance between 1988 and 2012
Foundation30 June 1988
OperatorSIX Swiss Exchange
ExchangesSIX Swiss Exchange
Trading symbolSMI
Constituents20
TypeLarge-cap, price index
Market capCHF 1,046 billion (26 February 2021, free-float-adjusted)
Weighting methodMarket-value-weighted
Related indicesSMI MIDSMI ExpandedSPI 20SPISLI
Websitesix-group.com
ISINCH0009980894
Reuters.SSMI
BloombergSMI:IND
SMI performance between 1988 and 2012

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