(RTTNews.com) – The Swiss stock market ended Thursday’s session with a small gain. Investors were focused on today’s announcement from the European Central Bank. The ECB surprised investors by announcing that bond purchases will be extended till the end of next year, which is longer-than-expected, but its pace will ease after March. The central bank left its key interest rates unchanged for a sixth consecutive session.
Economists had widely expected the bank to extend the asset purchases by six months beyond March 2017, but retain the size of the programme unchanged. The ECB announcement sparked a weakening in the value of the Euro against the U.S. dollar.
Investors will now shift their focus to the upcoming Federal Reserve policy decision next week. The Fed is widely expected to announced a rate hike at the meeting.
Credit Suisse jumped 3.1 percent Thursday following its investor meeting yesterday. The stock had surged by over 7 percent on Wednesday. JPMorgan has raised its rating on the stock to “Overweight.” Rival UBS also gained 0.6 percent.
Syngenta advanced 2.0 percent after ChemChina has received approval from the Australian authorities to take acquire the company.
Adecco increased 1.4 percent and Dufry added 1.1. Aryzta also closed higher by 1.5 percent.
Meanwhile, Actelion dropped 1.7 percent. The stock has run up sharply in recent days on the possibility of a takeover by U.S. company Johnson & Johnson.
Sonova declined 2.4 percent and Galenica fell 1.9 percent. Swiss Re weakened by 1.0 percent after Jefferies downgraded its rating on the stock to “Underperform.”
Index heavyweights Novartis and Roche each surrendered 0.4 percent. However, Nestlé ended the day with a gain of 0.8 percent.
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Plantations International