The Swiss Stock Market Fell After Latest China Crash

(RTTNews) - The Swiss stock market weakened further Thursday due to the renewed turmoil in China. The market opened deep in the red and extended its losses in early trade. The market began to stabilize after the first hour of trade and recovered some lost ground in the afternoon, after the opening of the U.S. markets was less drastic a negative than in Europe.

The volatility barometer increased 12 percent Thursday, highlighting the nervousness of investors. Continued worry over the health of the Chinese economy sparked another global sell-off. A sharply lower yuan fix pulled China's Shanghai Composite index down over 7 percent within the first 30 minutes of trading today, prompting its second day-long suspension in four days.

The Swiss Market Index decreased 1.90 percent Thursday and finished at 8,449.86. The SMI's intraday low was around 120 points lower than the closing price. The Swiss Leader Index dropped 2.04 percent and the Swiss Performance Index lost 1.90 percent.

The SMI has had a rough start to 2016. The market has dropped over 4 percent and nearly 370 points since Monday.

The weakest performing stock of the session was Galenica, with a loss of 5.1 percent. Galenica was the top performing stock in 2015. Today's pull back was attributed largely to profit taking.

Baked goods manufacturer Aryzta, which was one of the worst performing stocks of 2015, was also under pressure. The stock dropped 3.7 percent Thursday.

The financial stocks also turned in a weak performance. Credit Suisse and UBS both fell by 2.9 percent each and Julius Baer dropped 2.8 percent.

The cyclicals were also under pressure. Adecco decreased 3,5 percent and Clariant weakened by 3.2 percent. Kuehne + Nagel surrendered 2.6 percent and Schindler lost 3.2 percent. Transocean finished lower by 2.0 percent, due to weakness in crude oil prices.

The index heavyweights all finished in the red Thursday. Nestlé dropped 2.3 percent and Novartis fell 1.9 percent. Roche fared a bit better, with a loss of 0.7 percent.

In the broad market, Temenos sank 5.6 percent. UBS lowered its investment rating on the stock to "Sell."