Swiss Market Ends Weak

(RTTNews) - Save for a few minutes early on in the session, the Switzerland market stayed in negative territory on Wednesday as investors remained reluctant to make significant moves, choosing to wait for directional cues.

The benchmark SMI ended down 39.11 points or 0.35% at 11,113.98, nearly 20 points off the day's low of 11,093.43.

Kuehne & Nagel ended down 2.19%. Partners Group and Sonova both ended lower by 1.26%, and Alcon eased nearly 1%.

Novartis, Lonza Group, Swiss Re, Swisscom, Zurich Insurance Group, Givaudan and Geberit lost 0.4 to 0.8%.

Swiss Life Holding and Richemont ended up 0.62% and 0.6%, respectively. Sika gained 0.37%.

In the Mid Price Index, Sandoz ended 2.57% down. Ems Chemie Holdings drifted down 0.8%, while ams OSRAM AG, Galenica Sante, BKW and Flughafen Zurich ended down 0.3 to 0.5%.

Meyer Burger Tech gained about 1.65%, recovering a bit from recent sharp losses. Adecco, Avolta, Swatch Group and Julius Baer gained 1 to 1.5%.

In economic news, a report from UBS & CFA Society said the Swiss investors' sentiment index rose by 5.9 points from the previous month to -23.7 in December. The reading points to the lowest amount of pessimism fro Swiss investors in ten months.