Save for about a couple of minutes a little before noon, the Switzerland stock market languished in negative territory on Friday.
However, with selling interest remaining subdued, the downside was not much and the market ended the session just marginally down.
The benchmark SMI ended lower by 6.39 points or 0.06% at 10,967.37, after scaling a low of 10,891.67 and a high of 10,975.90 in the session.
Richemont ended lower by about 3%. Swatch Group, UBS Group, Sika and Credit Suisse shed 1.3 to 1.75%. SGS and Swiss Life Holding both ended lower by about 1%, while Alcon, LafargeHolcim, Zurich Insurance Group and Partners Group lost 0.6 to 0.85%.
Nestle advanced 1.2%, ABB gained 0.9%, Novartis moved up by about 0.4% and Roche Holding gained 0.6%. Roche’s subsidiary Genentech is recalling prescription drug Evrysdi or risdiplam as it failed to meet child resistant packaging requirements, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
In the midcap section, Georg Fischer declined 2.8%. Clariant and Flughafen Zurich both closed lower by about 2.2%, while OC Oerlikon Corp, Sonova, Adecco, AMS, Baloise Holding and Straumann Holding lost 1.2 to 1.6%.
SIG Combibloc moved up 3.1%, PSP Swiss Property, Temenos Group, Vifor Pharma and Swiss Prime Site gained 1.2 to 2%, and Tecan Group ended 1.1% up.
Swiss Market Closes Slightly Lower
2021-03-19 18:31:13
