The Swiss Stock Market Declined On U.S. Weakness

(RTTNews) - The Swiss stock market ended Wednesday's session firmly in negative territory. The market was up slightly in early trade, but reversed direction in the afternoon. The release of the weaker than anticipated U.S. durable goods orders report caused the turnaround. The sharp sell-off in the U.S. equity markets also sparked an acceleration to the downside in the last hour of trade for the Swiss market.

The Swiss Market Index dropped by 1.12 percent Wednesday and finished at 9,188.25. The Swiss Leader Index fell by 0.89 percent and the Swiss Performance Index lost 1.08 percent.

Adecco was among the weakest performing stocks, with a decrease of 2.3 percent. Luxury goods stocks were also weak, with Swatch falling by 1.9 percent and Richemont losing 1.6 percent. The exporters were under pressure due to yesterday's disappointing Chinese manufacturing report.

The index heavyweights all finished in the red, which pressured the overall market. Novartis turned in the weakest performance, with a loss of 1.6 percent. Roche dropped by 1.0 percent and Nestle finished down by 1.5 percent.

Sika fell by 1.5 percent, adding to the loss of nearly 3 percent yesterday. It is still unclear what effect the recent ruling by the Court of Zug will have on Saint-Gobain's efforts to acquire a controlling interest in Sika.

Transocean was among the best performing stocks Wednesday, with an increase of 2.0 percent. Swiss Re ended the session with a loss of 0.2 percent, despite an upgrade from Deutsche Bank to "Buy" from "Hold."