The Swiss Stock Market Finished Lower After Early Gains Eroded

(RTTNews) - The Swiss stock market got off to a positive start Friday, but quickly ran out of steam and dropped solidly into negative territory. The market was then stuck in a sideways trend for most of the afternoon. The weak performance of index heavyweights Nestle and Novartis weighed on the overall market.

Overall the trading session was rather quiet. There was no US economic data to drive the direction of trading at the end of the week. Investors took a bit of a breather following yesterday's announcement from the European Central Bank. The ECB maintained its rates and President Mario Draghi left the door open for more stimulus.

The Swiss Market Index decreased 0.43 percent Friday and finished at 8,034.86. The SMI ended the trading week with an overall loss of 0.7 percent. The Swiss Leader Index fell 0.16 percent Friday and the Swiss Performance Index lost 0.31 percent.

Actelion dropped 2.6 percent Friday, adding to yesterday's loss of 6.5 percent. The sharp drop in value comes despite its better than expected financial report on Thursday.

Nestlé also extended its weakness from the previous session, falling another 1.2 percent. The food giant reported weak sales data on Thursday and lowered its forecast for the full year.

As for the rest of the index heavyweights, Novartis decreased 0.4 percent and Roche dipped 0.1 percent.

Richemont declined 1.2 percent and Swatch weakened by 0.7 percent. Shares of Dufry also surrendered 1.1 percent.

Adecco was the top performing stock of the session, with a gain of 3.1 percent. Sika climbed 2.2 percent, Kuehne + Nagel rose 1.2 percent and Aryzta added 1.1 percent.

UBS increased 0.4 percent and Credit Suisse added 0.1 percent. The stocks jumped by 2.0 percent and 4.4 percent respectively for the week. They benefitted from strong financial reports from US banks this week and the continued easing of concerns over Deutsche Bank.