ZURICH, April 25 (Reuters) – The Swiss National Bank (SNBN.S), opens new tab posted on Thursday a record quarterly profit of 58.8 billion Swiss francs ($64.34 billion) for the first quarter, driven by the weakening franc and booming equity markets.
The result for the central bank compared with a profit of 26.9 billion francs a year earlier and beat forecasts from economists at UBS, who had expected a profit of 40 billion to 50 billion Swiss francs.
It also far exceeded the SNB’s previous highest quarterly profit of 38.9 billion francs from the second quarter of 2020.
During the quarter, the SNB made a profit of 52.4 billion from its foreign currency positions, helped by rising global stock markets at the start of the year, with the MSCI World Price Index (.MIWO00000PUS), opens new tab up 10% in the first quarter.
The central bank owns roughly 170 billion francs worth of stocks, including stakes in Google owner Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab, Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab and Starbucks (SBUX.O), opens new tab as part of its massive pile of foreign currency investments.
Source: REUTER
