Swiss Stock Market Halts Four-Day Winning Streak

(RTTNews) - The Swiss stock market was unable to hold early gains on Thursday, quickly turning lower and writing a finish to the four-day winning streak in which it had advanced more than 100 points or 1 percent.

The flat performance was roughly in line with the rest of the European markets, which finished largely mixed but without large moves.

Even though the minutes from the recent meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve minutes contained few surprises, investors were hesitant to take long positions as the markets continued their weeklong trend of mixed and little changed.

The outlook for interest rates continues to be a consideration as Fed funds futures now price in three more quarter-percentage-point rate hikes this year. For the day, the SMI dropped 52.54 points or 0.46 percent to finish at 11,247.29 after trading between 11,246.68 and 11,320.10. Among the individual components, Sika tumbled 2.73 percent, while Credit Suisse spiked 2.06 percent, Nestle declined 1.54 percent, UBS Group improved 0.93 percent, Roche Holding sank 0.78 percent, Julius Bar Gruppe advanced 0.75 percent, Novartis slumped 0.75 percent, Swatch Group lost 0.37 percent, Swiss Re eased 0.12 percent, Zurich Insurance was up 0.05 percent and Swiss Life was unchanged.