(RTTNews.com) – The Swiss stock market ended Wednesday’s session virtually unchanged. Shortly after the start of trading, the market slipped beneath the 8,000 point level and remained there for much of the day. However, the market staged a recovery in the afternoon thanks to a tailwind from Wall Street.
The mood among investors was one of caution Wednesday. The recent losing streak among the U.S. markets, coupled with yesterday’s concerns over the European banks has had a negative impact on confidence levels. Investors are also looking forward to Thursday’s announcement from the Bank of England and the U.S. jobs report on Friday.
The Swiss Market Index decreased 0.01 percent Wednesday and finished at 8,010.10. The SMI hit an intraday low of 7,973 points. The Swiss Leader Index gained 0.08 percent, but the Swiss Performance Index lost 0.05 percent.
The luxury goods companies overcame early weakness and finished in the green. Richemont climbed 0.9 percent and Swatch added 0.6 percent. Syngenta was another notable gainer, with an increase of 1.1 percent and Lonza advanced 0.5 percent. Dufry gained 0.6 percent, recovering some of yesterday’s losses.
Following yesterday’s weak performance, the banks staged a recovery. Credit Suisse gained 0.9 percent and UBS rose 0.6 percent. Julius Baer
also finished higher by 0.2 percent.
Actelion dropped 1.3 percent. U.S. drugstore chain CVS announced that it has removed Opsumit from its list of covered medications. Opsumit, a treatment for pulmonary hypertension, is considered the Actelion drug with the greatest growth potential.
Clariant weakened by 1.0 percent after it was downgraded to “Equal weight” from “Overweight” by Morgan Stanley. Sonova declined 1.0 percent, Swiss Life surrendered 0.6 percent and Kuehne + Nagel lost 0.5 percent.
The pharmaceutical heavyweights finished in the red Wednesday. Roche decreased 0.6 percent and Nestlé fell 0.5 percent. However, shares of Nestle finished higher by 0.4 percent.
In the broad market, GAM sank 13 percent after the asset manager reported half year figures.
Belimo surged 6.7 percent after its half year results exceeded expectations.
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Plantations International