(News Bulletin 247) – Between the agri-food industry, raw materials, luxury, finance and pharmaceuticals, the Swiss market is home to some great stock market champions.

What are the largest groups on the stock market by country? To find out, the News Bulletin 247 editorial team decided to devote an article to each major market, retaining the ten largest market capitalizations by country based on data from companiesmarketcap.com.

Even if Swiss finance saw its reputation somewhat tarnished by the difficulties of Crédit Suisse (ultimately bought by UBS), last year, the Swiss market remains impressive given the size of the country. According to companiesmarketcap.com, the Swiss market has a market capitalization of around $2.2 trillion, much more than Italy or Spain, closer to $800 billion.

This is thanks to heavyweights, since the Swiss stock market has several companies that exceed or are close to 100 billion dollars in capitalization.

Nestlé, a champion in decline

This is the case of Nestlé, formerly the largest European group on the stock market until 2021, when LVMH dethroned it. The agri-food giant is now only fourth in Europe and is even starting to be approached by Hermès. This is due to a recent gloomy stock market performance (-15% over one year). The group disappointed in its growth and was penalized by fears about the impact of anti-obesity drugs on its business (although UBS believes this impact will be marginal). Jefferies fears that the company will not achieve its growth objectives.

Behind Nestlé follow two large Basel pharmaceutical laboratories, with almost the same market capitalization, namely Roche, and Novartis, which separated last fall from Sandoz. This company merged with Ciba-Geigy to create Novartis in 1996 and has now refocused on generic drugs and biosimilars (molecules that resemble generics but are more complex to produce).

Still in the health sector, Alcon is in tenth place. This company specializes in eye health and was owned by Novartis until a split in 2019.

Now a banking giant since its merger with Crédit Suisse, UBS is in fourth place. It is ahead of the industrial group specializing in automation and electrification technologies ABB, as well as the luxury specialist Richemont, owner of Cartier, sometimes sent by market rumors into the arms of LVMH or Kering. But the group’s management loudly proclaims its independence.

In chemicals, the construction chemicals specialist Sika, which at one time sparked attempts to buy out shares of Saint-Gobain, came eighth.

The top 10 is completed by the insurer Zurich Insurance (7th), and the cement manufacturer Holcim (9th) which merged with Lafarge in 2015 before withdrawing the name of the French group in 2021 (and its listing in Paris in 2022). A certain idea of ​​a merger between equals, as it was touted in 2015…

The largest capitalizations in the world:

  • The largest groups on the stock market in France
  • The largest groups on the stock market in the United States
  • The largest groups on the stock market in Germany
  • The largest groups on the stock market in India
  • The largest groups on the stock market in the United Kingdom
  • The largest groups on the stock market in China
  • The largest groups on the stock market in Japan
  • The largest groups on the stock market in Italy
  • The largest listed groups in Spain