B1G Numbers 2023: Key Figures from SIX Swiss Exchange

Despite the lowest trading activities in over a decade and a less than favourable listing environment, marked by rising inflation figures in major financial markets and massive increases in interest rates by the central banks, 2023 has been a good year for SIX Swiss Exchange. As ten companies completed successful listings and five new product issuers (one of which also joined as a trading participant) broadened the choice for investors, trading turnover reached CHF 1,046.3 billion with 46,094,349 transactions. 

SIX Swiss Exchange used the period of comparatively low listing and trading activity to pave the way for future growth. Two successful SWXess Maintenance Releases – SMR11 and SMR12 in May and December – introduced several service enhancements, including groundbreaking innovations like ETF QOD Europe and globally unique trading functionalities like Auction Volume Discovery (AVD) or our retail order types featuring the unique advantage of sitting in close proximity to the matching engine, entering the order book immediately after being triggered.

Extending its run of wins at the industry’s most relevant award ceremonies, SIX Swiss Exchange received an Editors’ Choice Award at the prestigious Leaders in Trading Awards in London in November 2023, the third award as best exchange in as many years. 

Christian Reuss, Head SIX Swiss Exchange, comments: “We’re proud to receive the recognition for our approach of pragmatic innovation that builds on existing solutions. Both AVD and QOD Europe are extensions of functionalities that were developed in close collaboration with our various stakeholders to make trading in a fragmented environment more efficient.” 

In terms of pure numbers, trading turnover on SIX Swiss Exchange reached CHF 1,046.3 billion, 13.4% lower than the CHF 1,208.1 bn in 2022, while 46,094,349 transactions were 24.2% less than the 60,810,665 in 2022.

Looking at the individual segments, only Fixed Income saw a Year-on-Year turnover increase, of 10.7% to CHF 171,602 mn. All other segments recorded a drop, from -15.2% in Equities (CHF 802,466 mn) to -34.4% in Structured Products (CHF 7,965 mn). With regards to the number of transactions, Fixed Income also saw a substantial increase of 32.6% to 442,353, while trades in the Structured Products segment fell by -27.0% to 388,555 compared to the previous year. For more details, please consult our Media Release.

In 2023, the security with the highest trading turnover on SIX Swiss Exchange was NESTLE N with CHF 84.2 billion (2022: NESTLE N with CHF 110.8 billion), while NOVARTIS N was the most traded security with 2,991,204 transactions (2022: NOVARTIS N with 3,589,785).

The highest monthly trading activity was registered in March 2023, boosted by the options and futures expiry, the banking crisis in the U.S. and developments surrounding Credit Suisse. Turnover reached CHF 126.2 billion, and the highest number of transactions in a single month was also recorded in March, with 5,567,069. In contrast, the slowest month was June 2023: with a turnover of only CHF 66.5 bn and 3,232,611 transactions.

André Buck, Global Head Sales & Relationship Management, added: “With the exception of March, which was again – as in 2022 – the strongest month, the trading activity has been below average throughout most of 2023. However, we are convinced this is a cyclical phenomenon and not a structural one, and our platforms are ready to handle the higher volumes as soon as they return.”

The Swiss blue chip index SMI® started the year at 10,729.4 points after having lost 16.7% in 2022. In 2023, the SMI performed in a narrow range. The annual high was reached on 15 May at 11,616 points – followed by a decline to a low of 10,251 points in October. With a strong final spurt, however, it climbed back above the 11,000 mark and closed the year at 11,137.8 points – ultimately a performance of 3.8%.

In total, ten companies chose to issue and list equity securities on SIX Swiss Exchange – with an aggregated transaction volume of around CHF 2.2 billion equivalent. The highlight of the year was the listing of Sandoz, the spin-off from Novartis, with a market capitalization of around CHF 10.5 billion. A novelty of the year was R&S Group being listed at SIX Swiss Exchange via a business combination with VT5 Acquisition Company, the first SIX-listed Swiss Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC).

And in addition, eight Chinese issuers listed Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) on the Swiss stock exchange, raising around USD 2.4 billion. Since the launch of the China-Switzerland Stock Connect between SIX Swiss Exchange and the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges in July 2022, a total of 17 Chinese companies have successfully issued and listed GDRs in Switzerland to raise capital outside China.

Furthermore, SIX Swiss Exchange continued to offer already listed companies access to capital, as they were able to raise around CHF 8.3 billion via equity capital increases in the past year (CHF 7.0 billion in 2022).

2023 was also another strong year in raising debt capital. The volume raised of around CHF 116 billion by debt capital instruments (bonds and money market papers) was the second time in a row above the CHF 100 billion mark (after CHF 114 billion in 2022). In total, the bond segment saw 436 new listings (393 in 2022), of which around 90% were denominated in Swiss Francs.

In respect to ESG-related bonds, 136 outstanding green, sustainability, sustainability-linked and social bonds are tradable on SIX Swiss Exchange with an aggregated nominal volume of around CHF 31 billion, up from 108 sustainable bonds with an aggregated nominal volume of around CHF 28 billion at the end of 2022.

Valeria Ceccarelli, Head Primary Markets, commented: “In a difficult year with less than ideal conditions for new equity listings, I am pleased that we could welcome ten new companies to our exchange, including the first ‘De-SPAC’ in Switzerland which validates our strategic decision of broadening the set of options to raise capital to market participants.” 

In 2023, five new product issuers joined SIX Swiss Exchange. These include the ETF issuers AXA Investment Managers (joined 25.4.) and First Trust (23.10.), the ETP issuer CAT Financial Products (19.9.) who also joined as a new trading participant, as well as the two investment fund issuers Zurich Invest Ltd (7.11.) and Sustainable Real Estate AG (5.9.), adding two more real estate funds to the existing offering of 46 actively managed investment funds.

In the ETF segment, the now 28 issuers have listed 150 new products. As a result, a new chapter has been added to the remarkable growth story of ETFs on SIX Swiss Exchange, as the threshold of 1,700 ETFs available to investors has been surpassed. And with the extension of QOD (Quote on Demand), its on-exchange RFQ trading platform, to include ETFs from different European markets, SIX Swiss Exchange broadens the choice for its trading participants to approximatively 6,000 ETFs, the biggest product universe offered by a regulated primary exchange. More information on QOD Europe

New milestones have also been reached in the Structured Products segment. For the first time ever in December 2023, investors enjoyed a choice of over 60,000 products. And throughout the year, the continuous listing activity of issuers has resulted in another record of over 100,000 new structured product listings on SIX Swiss Exchange, obliterating the previous year’s record of 95,207 new structured products with 102,504.

An anniversary could be celebrated in the Sponsored Funds segment. Launched 10 years ago together with Julius Baer, it allows investors to trade investment funds like shares on SIX Swiss Exchange. While the segment started with around 250 products from 60 providers in 2013, the mark of 700 products was exceeded for the first time in May 2023, from 95 different providers. Read more

A special milestone was reached by CONNEXOR, where the 100th client was welcomed in April: now more than 70 financial products issuers and brokers alongside with 30 service providers have chosen the globally unique reference data platform. CONNEXOR seamlessly connects data sources such as issuers of financial products with data recipients such as banks, specialized third parties, exchanges, CSDs, or even the media.

Furthermore, CONNEXOR, which has become a standard in the Swiss market and is used in more than ten other countries worldwide, again registered close to 1.5 million newly issued products across various asset classes submitted to the platform: structured products (including warrants), OTC derivatives, Exchange Traded Products (ETPs), fixed income securities and life insurance policies. 

In the video below, André Buck, Global Head Sales & Relationship Management at SIX Swiss Exchange, talks you through the highlights and milestones of the year, with a few additional statistical nuggets from the year 2023.

Detailed statistics on turnover and transaction volumes per segment compared with the previous month and previous year, on newly listed products and on the development of the most important indices can be found in the media releases of SIX.

The website of SIX Swiss Exchange provides you with full access to our complete information offering. We provide you with the latest market data and comprehensive statistics for our entire securities universe. This includes order book information, prices, volumes and turnover figures as well as historical data and statistics.

We also provide official notices of listed companies, management transactions and other relevant information to ensure safe and transparent trading. Discover more.

The B1G Numbers videos provide transparency for the the market and wider public. This includes the development of trading volumes, the number of trades and the performance our blue chip index SMI, among other highlights. The B1G Numbers are presented by André Buck, Global Head Sales & Relationship Management. Discover previous editions

• Equity Trading – Fragmented Future or Europe-wide Collaboration Opportunity?
• Recognition for Continuous Innovation: New Industry Award for SIX Swiss Exchange
• Trading on SIX Swiss Exchange Enhanced with New Order Types