Swiss Market Ends Slightly Down
(RTTNews) - After languishing in negative territory till a little before the final hour of the day's trading session, the Switzerland market managed to emerge into positive zone on Friday but failed to hold firm and eventually settled with a marginal loss.
Shares of pharma companies found some support on reports Switzerland has added a clause in its trade deal offer to the US that will give local drugmakers preferred treatment to avoid tariffs on exports.
The benchmark SMI, which dropped to 11,874.07 around mid morning, settled at 11,972.41 with a loss of 5.95 points or 0.05%. The index touched a high of 12,046.30.
ABB, UBS Group, VAT Group, Kuehne + Nagel, Adecco, Partners Group, Richemont, Sika and Julius Baer ended lower by 1 to 1.5%.
Sandoz Group gained nearly 2%. Novartis and Amrize climbed 1.36% and 1.12%, respectively.
Swisscom and Roche Holdings both gained nearly 1%. Lonza Group and Lindt & Spruengli posted modest gains.
On the economic front, Switzerland's unemployment rate held steady in June after falling slightly in the previous month, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, or SECO, said.
The unadjusted unemployment rate stood at 2.7% in June, the same as in May. In the corresponding month last year, the jobless rate was 2.2%. The youth unemployment rate, which is applied to the 15-24 age group, also remained stable at 2.5 percent.
Data showed that the seasonally adjusted jobless rate rose to 2.9% from 2.8%.
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