Swiss Market Ends Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - After opening modestly higher and spending some time in positive territory Tuesday morning, the Switzerland stock market fell into the red and stayed weak right through the day's session amid rising fears about a possible recession.

The benchmark SMI, which advanced to 10,916.20 in early trades, ended with a loss of 179.47 points or 1.65% at 10,702.50, the day's low.

Sika, UBS Group, Credit Suisse, Swiss Re, Swiss Life Holding, Holcim and Richemont lost 4 to 5%.

Zurich Insurance Group declined nearly 4%. ABB, Logitech, Partners Group and Roche Holding ended lower by 1 to 2%. Swisscom and Novartis both shed nearly 1%.

Lonza Group and Givaudan gained 0.91% and 0.55%, respectively.

In the Mid Price Index, Helvetia, Baloise Holding, Dufry, AMS, Julius Baer, Adecco and Swatch Group dropped 3 to 5.25%.

VAT Group declined nearly 3%. Ems Chemie Holding shed 2.56%. Flughafen Zurich, Georg Fischer, Clariant and Temenos Group lost 1.25 to 2.2%.

Bachem Holding rallied 3.55%. Zur Rose surged 3.26% and Tecan Group climbed 2.3%. Swiss Prime Site and Galenica Sante gained 1.74% and 1.13%, respectively.

Most of the markets across Europe fell to multi-week lows. The pan European Stoxx 600 dropped 2.11%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 drifted down 2.86%, Germany's DAX fell 2.91% and France's CAC 40 declined 2.68%.