Swiss Market Ends Modestly Lower

(RTTNews) - Swiss stocks found some support in late afternoon trades on Friday, but still ended the day's session on a weak note.

The mood remained cautious amid concerns about the outlook for global economy in the wake of tariff threats by the U.S., fears of a U.S. government shutdown, and recent hawkish comments from the Fed that interest rate cuts will be fewer next year than earlier forecast.

The benchmark SMI, which dropped to a low of 11,248.40 around mid afternoon, ended the day's session with a loss of 29.92 points or 0.26% at 11,394.92.

Sika ended down nearly 2.5%. Holcim and Zurich Insurance Group both closed lower by about 1%. UBS Group, Swisscom, Partners Group, Geberit, Swiss Re, Novartis and Nestle closed down 0.3 to 0.7%.

Shares of pharma company Idorsia tanked more than 50% after the firm announced delays to a rights deal related to its hypertension drug Tryvio.

Adecco climbed about 1.7% and SIG Group gained 1.33%. Sonova, Swatch Group and VAT Group closed higher by 0.7 to 1%. Lonza Group gained 0.53%.

Data from Swiss National Bank showed Switzerland's current account surplus narrowed to CHF 6.3 billion in the third quarter of 2024 from a revised CHF 16 billion in the corresponding period of the previous year.