The Swiss Stock Market Capped A Weak Trading Week With A Sharp Drop

(RTTNews) - The Swiss stock market ended Friday's session with a significant loss and finished negative for the trading week. The market steadily declined until midday Friday, but managed to stage a bit of a recovery after the stronger than expected U.S. employment report was released.

The early weakness was due to the Greek decision to delay its loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund, which had been due today. Greece asked IMF on Thursday to bundle the four payments due to the lender this month, totaling 1.6 billion euros, into a single payment to be made on June 30.

The Swiss Market Index declined by 1.39 percent Friday and finished at 9,105.02. The SMI ended the overall trading week with a loss of 1.4 percent. The Swiss Leader Index fell by 1.33 percent Friday and the Swiss Performance Index lost 1.35 percent.

The weakest performing stock was Syngenta, which dropped by 3.3 percent. The company is continuing to hold talks with Monsanto regarding a possible combination. BASF has also reportedly emerged as a bidder for the company's seed business. However, with the process dragging on, investors are becoming skeptical that a deal can be reached.

Credit Suisse declined by 1.6 percent and UBS fell by 1.7 percent. The Wall Street Journal reported that the two banks are among a group of up to nine banks that are expected to make settlement payments to U.S. authorities related to mortgage-backed securities. Julius Baer also decreased by 1.9 percent.

The index heavyweights all finished in the red at the end of the trading week. Novartis dropped by 1.2 percent and Roche weakened by 1.4 percent. Goldman Sachs confirmed its "Neutral" rating on shares of Novartis. Roche remains on Goldman's "Conviction Buy" list and also received a price target increase.

Nestle also surrendered 1.5 percent. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India ordered recall of nine variants of its Maggi noodles from the Indian market, on safety concerns.

Richemont declined by 2.1 percent and competitor Swatch lost 0.5 percent. Sonova decreased by 2.0 percent and ABB surrendered 1.1 percent.