Swiss Market Settles Flat
(RTTNews) - After a flat start, the Switzerland market turned weak Monday morning and then spent the rest of the day's trading session in negative territory as investors remained reluctant to pick up stocks as they looked ahead to a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and several European leaders to discuss the situation in Ukraine.
Investors also looked ahead to the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole Symposium that gets underway on Thursday. Several chiefs of central banks are scheduled to make speeches at the symposium.
The benchmark SMI ended with a marginal loss of 2.45 points or 0.02% at 12,071.88. The index, which edged up a bit to 12,073.67 at the start, touched a low of 12,020.49 in the session.
Swatch Group drifted down by about 3%. Amrize closed down 1.85%, while VAT Group, Geberit and Kuehne + Nagel ended lower by 1.3 to 1.4%.
Adecco, SGS, Lindt & Spruengli, Sika, SIG Group, Zurich Insurance and UBS Group lost 0.4 to 0.7%.
Alcon climbed about 1.4%. Straumann Holding, Novartis, Sandoz Group, Swisscom, Sonova and Givaudan advanced 0.5 to 0.85%.
On the economic front, Switzerland's industrial output contracted slightly in the second quarter, provisional data from the Federal Statistical Office showed.
Industrial production dropped 0.1% year-over-year in the June quarter, reversing its 8.9% growth in the first quarter.
The output produced in the manufacturing sector was 0.7% higher compared to last year but much slower than the 10.3% growth in the previous quarter.
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