At a time when the European stock market was in turmoil, Switzerland's large leading stocks with strong defensive attributes became a bright spot. The Swiss Market Index tracks the country's 20 most liquid large-cap stocks, with a cumulative increase of 4.6% this month; while the Eurozone benchmark index, the Eurozone Stock 50 Index, fell 3.2% during the same period. The Swiss stock index's excess income of nearly 8 percentage points is the highest level since March 2020 — when the pandemic hit the world, investors scrambled to find safe haven assets. What is behind this increase is that European investors are taking the initiative to reduce their risk exposure in the face of higher financing costs, questions about the AI transaction market, and political turmoil in countries such as France and Spain. The rise in the index was mainly driven by the three major stocks: pharmaceutical company Roche Holdings rose 12% in October, Novartis rose 6.7%; global food giant Nestle rose 10%. All of the gains in the Swiss Index this month came from these three established defensive leaders. Damian Burckhardt, head of Swiss equities at EFG Asset Management, said, “Investors are optimistic about the defensive nature of individual Swiss stocks and are actively looking for alternative directions other than crowded AI transactions. Previously, funds from the pharmaceutical sector were taken away to pursue AI, but now this trend is reversing.” Bank of America's latest fund manager survey also showed that the market's preference for Swiss stocks has increased significantly, with a net 16% of the fund managers surveyed choosing Switzerland as the most promising European stock market.

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