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"In the eyes of financial markets, Mario Monti seems to be the best possible choice at present"
- Alessandro Fezzi, senior market analyst at LGT Capital Management
Swiss stocks gained, after Italy approved austerity measures on Friday. The Swiss blue-chip index SMI, a measure of the largest and most actively traded companies, advanced 1.50%, or 83.25 points, to 5,649.03. The broader Swiss Performance Index rose 1.53%, or 77.67 points, to 5,146.15.
"In the eyes of financial markets, Mario Monti seems to be the best possible choice at present," said Alessandro Fezzi, senior market anayst at LGT Capital Management in Pfaeffikon, Switzerland. "He might even win back market confidence. Even so, the success of the painful reforms is by no means guaranteed and financial markets will soon test the new government."
"The SNB has achieved a lot of success," Marc Chandler, chief currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York, said. "They are using strategic ambiguity now. They are keeping the market guessing about a potential higher ceiling and that's doing the heavy lifting for them."