The Swiss Stock Market Finished With A Modest Gain Monday

(RTTNews) - The Swiss stock market ended the first trading session of the week with a slight gain. The market was under pressure in early trade, due in part to the performance of index heavyweights Nestle and Roche. However, the market managed to turn positive in the afternoon, after the U.S. released a pair of economic reports.

The ISM non-manufacturing index turned in an unexpected decrease, but U.S. factory orders came in stronger than anticipated. Factory orders increased by 1.8 percent in November, while economists expected a rise of 1.6 percent.

The Swiss Market Index increased by 0.02 percent Monday and finished at 8,272.23. Both the Swiss Leader Index and the Swiss Performance Index also finished with gains of 0.02 percent each.

ABB was among the largest decliners Monday, falling by 1.6 percent. Swatch also dropped by 1.2 percent, after ZKB downgraded it to "Market weight" from "Overweight."

Among the index heavyweight, Novartis finished higher by 0.3 percent. Roche added 0.1 percent, but Nestle ended the session lower by 0.2 percent.

Credit Suisse increased by 1.4 percent and UBS added 1.1 percent. Sonova climbed by 1.2 percent and Clariant gained 0.7 percent. Holcim also rose by 0.4 percent.