Gold and shares boost Swiss National Bank’s performance

Gold and equities will have boosted the SNB's 9-month performance Keystone-SDA

The Swiss National Bank (SNB)'s huge investments in gold and foreign equities have helped boost the central bank's performance in the third quarter, according to the calculations of UBS economists published on Monday.

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According to their estimates of the bank’s ‘passive’ investment strategy and the performance of its major asset classes, the experts forecast a CHF25-30 billion ($31-37 billion) profit this year. This would comfortably make up for the CHF15.3 billion loss recorded in summer, and represent a profit of CHF10-15 billion after nine months.

The valuation of the SNB’s gold stocks exceeded CHF100 billion, thanks to the 16% rise in the price of gold between July and the end of August, generating a profit of CHF14 billion.

And the CHF200 billion invested in Swiss and global equities also generated just under CHF15 billion, based on an estimated overall increase of 8%.

The relative appreciation of the Swiss franc over the nine-month period against the main investment currencies has reduced the result by CHF2.4 billion.

Also, the global bond portfolio generated a loss of CHF2.5 billion, due to the mixed effect of lower interest rates in the US and higher rates in the UK, Japan and Germany.

Dividends and interest-rate yields made a positive contribution of CHF3.5 billion.

The SNB has scheduled the publication of its nine-month results for October 31.

Translated from French by DeepL/sb

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