Swiss Market Ends Lower As Weak Earnings, Growth Concerns Weigh

(RTTNews) - Save for a few minutes at the start of the session, the Switzerland stock market languished in negative territory on Tuesday as investors stayed wary of making significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy announcement.

Some weak earnings updates, a downward revision in global growth forecast by the International Monetary Fund, and looming interest rate hikes by central banks weighed on sentiment.

The benchmark SMI ended with a loss of 27.04 points or 0.24% at 11,102.31. The index touched a low of 11,074.15 in early trades.

UBS Group shares tanked nearly 10% after reporting weaker-than-expected profit in the second quarter. The lender said its profit in the three months ended June rose 5% to $2.1 billion, compared with $2.0 billion a year earlier. Analysts had expected profit to rise as much as 19.8% in the latest quarter.

Credit Suisse ended more than 4% down. Sika drifted down by about 2.5%. Partners Group and Geberit lost 2.3% and 2.1%, respectively.

Richemont ended 1.52% down and Holcim ended lower by 1.22%.

Logitech gained about 1.75%, Roche Holding advanced 1.25% and Novartis moved up 1.1%. Lonza Group climbed nearly 1%.

In the Swiss Mid Price Index, Zur Rose dropped 7.3% and Adecco ended lower by about 4.7%. AMS shed 3.7%, while Temenos Group, Straumann Holding and Georg Fisher drifted down 2.3 to 2.65%.

Lindt & Spruengli shares gained about 7%. Shares of the chocolate maker rallied after the company raised its sales guidance and unveiled a 1 billion Swiss franc ($1.04 billion) share buyback program.

SIG Combibloc rallied 5.4%. Julius Baer moved up 3.1%. Flughafen Zurich, Kuehne & Nagel and Sonova surged 1.2 to 1.5%.

The International Monetary Fund cut its global growth projections for 2022 and 2023, dubbing the world's economic outlook "gloomy and more uncertain."

The IMF now expects the world economy to grow 3.2% this year, before slowing further to a 2.9% GDP rate in 2023. The revisions mark a downgrade of 0.4 and 0.7 percentage points, respectively, from its April projections.