"With [U.S.] employment taking off, investors feel more like buying cyclical shares"
- Arnaud Scarpaci, a fund manager at Agilis Gestion SA
Swiss stocks climbed on Fridays after U.S. employers added more than expected jobs and unemployment rate fell to lowest since 2009.
The Swiss blue-chip index SMI, a measure of the largest and most actively traded companies, gained 1.47%, or 88.90 points, to 6,153.31. The broader Swiss Performance Index gained 1.43%, or 78.66 points, to 5,579.91.
"With [U.S.] employment taking off, investors feel more like buying cyclical shares," said Arnaud Scarpaci, a fund manager at Agilis Gestion SA in Paris, referring to companies whose earnings are most tied to economic growth. "The market was waiting for this."
Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs is to announce unemployment rate on Wednesday. Jobless rate rose 0.1 per cent to 3.1 per cent in December.
© Dukascopy Bank