Swiss Market Ends Notably Lower
(RTTNews) - The Switzerland market ended notably lower on Wednesday, in line with markets across Europe, as concerns about global economic growth rose after Fitch downgraded U.S.'s sovereign credit rating from AAA to AA+, citing fiscal deterioration and repeated debt ceiling standoffs.
The benchmark SMI, which tumbled to 11,130.71 earlier in the day, ended with a loss of 96.55 points or 0.85% at 11,212.70.
Sonova and Richemont lost 3.63% and 3.56%, respectively. Swiss Life Holding, Swiss Re, UBS Group and Logitech ended lower by 2.4 to 2.6%.
Alcon, Partners Group, Givaudan, Lonza Group and Gebeirt lost 1 to 2%.
Roche Holding and Novartis ended modestly lower. Roche's subsidiary Genentech has accused a Novartis unit, Sandoz, of infringing one of its patents.
In the Mid Price Index, AMS tanked more than 9%. DocMorris dropped 8.1%. Temenos Group, Dufry and VAT Group ended lower by 4.76%, 4.54% and 4.13%, respectively.
Straumann Holding, Julius Baer, Meyer Burger Tech, Swatch Group, Bachem Holding, SIG Combibloc and Tecan Group lost 2 to 4%.
In economic news, Swiss consumer confidence improved for the third straight month in the third quarter, survey results from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, or SECO, showed.
The consumer confidence index dropped to -27.1 in the third quarter from -29.6 in the preceding three-month period.
Despite this further improvement, the consumer sentiment index remained well below the long-term average of -6.
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