Swiss stock market takes slight tumble as war in Middle East escalates

The war in the Middle East is leading to losses on the world's major stock exchanges at the start of the week. However, the Swiss Market Index (SMI) did not fall quite as sharply in early trading as its key European counterparts. + Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox On the stock market, food giant Nestlé is showing resilience, while gold and the Swiss franc are in demand. On Saturday, Israel and the United States launched attacks on Iran, killing the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, among other officials. Tehran responded with attacks on targets in Israel and on several US military bases in the Gulf region. As VP Bank stated, the situation remains unclear: "Whether this will be a shorter or longer conflict remains difficult to assess at this time." Oil prices have already risen due to fears of supply delays caused by a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. All indexes falling The SMI lost 2.0%, dropping to 13,730 points at around 09:20 on Monday.