(RTTNews.com) – The Swiss stock market ended Thursday’s session firmly in negative territory. After the slight recovery staged during yesterday’s session, the market resumed the downward trend from earlier this week. The weak performance of the pharma heavyweights and the bank stocks weighed on the overall market Thursday.
Investors had their first opportunity to react to yesterday’s announcement from the Federal Reserve. As expected, the Fed left interest rates unchanged. However, traders are left wondering when the central bank plans to raise rates further. Investors will be watching for the release of the highly anticipated U.S. employment report on Friday.
The Swiss Market Index decreased by 0.63 percent Thursday and finished at 8,276.70. The Swiss Leader Index dropped 0.50 percent and the Swiss Performance Index lost 0.52 percent.
Julius Baer declined 1.1 percent. The stock had jumped yesterday, after the private bank reported better than expected results. Zurich Insurance decreased 0.9 percent and Swiss Life fell 1.0 percent. However, Swiss Re rose 0.3 percent after German competitor Hannover Re raised its profit target for the full year.
Roche dropped 1.7 percent and Novartis forfeited 0.6 percent. Shares of Nestle also finished lower by 0.20 percent.
Swatch climbed 1.0 percent after it release results for the full year. Rival Richemont finished the session unchanged.
Cyclicals fared better than most on Thursday. LafargeHolcim increased 1.1 percent, while Sika and Syngenta added 0.5 percent each.
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Plantations International