4.6 Where Investors Come From
The graphic below shows where investors on the Swiss stock market come from. The high proportion of foreign investors is striking here. Accordingly, investors resident in Switzerland account for only 23 percent of the entire stock market.
Investors in All SPI Companies by Origin
Where investors in the SPI come from. Source IHS Markit/IR club Schweiz, Swiss Ownership Trends Q4 2023 (rounded figures)
It should be noted here that this picture is dominated by the heavy-weights on the Swiss share index such as Nestlé, Novartis, and Roche. Looking at small caps, the share of investors with a Swiss domicile is almost 50 percent. The proportion of foreign investors is still high even for these smaller stocks. It follows from this that the Investor Relations activity of each company has to have an international focus.
Finally, investors typically have different sectoral preferences depending on where they come from. For example, investors from Scandinavia and Switzerland are focused primarily on the healthcare, consumer goods and industrial sectors, while Asian investors show a preference for the consumer goods, financial and industrial sectors.