Swiss Market Ends Notably Lower
(RTTNews) - The Switzerland stock market ended notably lower on Wednesday after staying in negative territory right through the day's session.
The benchmark SMI ended with a loss of 120.16 points or 1.05% at 11,348.11, slightly off the day's low of 11,343.31.
Lonza Group, Alcon and Givaudan lost 2.2 to 2.5%. Roche Holding drifted down 1.47%, while Swiss Re, Nestle, Novartis, Swisscom, Zurich Insurance Group and Partners Group ended lower by 1 to 1.28%.
Only two stocks - Holcim and ABB - among the SMI components managed to close in positive territory. The stocks gained about 0.3%.
In the Mid Price Index, Belimo Holding lost 2.5%. Bachem Holding and Temenos Group both shed 2.1%, DocMorris declined nearly 2%, while Ems Chemie Holding, Straumann Holding and Kuehne & Nagel lost 1.4 to 1.52%.
AMS rallied nearly 3%. Swatch Group and SGS ended higher by 0.9% and 0.71%, respectively.
In economic news, Switzerland's unemployment rate decreased in May to the lowest level in seven months, in line with expectations, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, or SECO, said.
The unadjusted unemployment rate dropped to 1.9% in May from a stable rate of 2% in April. A similar jobless rate was last seen in October 2022.
In the corresponding month last year, the jobless rate was 2.1%.
Data also showed that the seasonally adjusted jobless rate came in at 2% in May, up from 1.9% in the prior month.
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