Swiss Market Ends Flat

(RTTNews) - The Switzerland stock market ended with a small loss on Wednesday, recovering well past noon after a weak start.

The mood remained cautious right through the session as worries about surging coronavirus cases across the world, and U.S. President Donald Trump's warning that the pandemic "will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better".

According to the data from Johns Hopkins University, the virus has now infected more than 3.8 million people in the U.S.

The benchmark SMI ended with a loss of 5.01 points or 0.05% at 10,439.04, slightly off the day's high of 10,447.99. The index touched a low of 10,375.98 in the session.

On Tuesday, the index ended down 26.87 points or 0.26% at 10,444.05.

Richemont shares ended nearly 2% down. Swatch Group, Adecco and Swiss Life Holding ended lower by 1.25 to 1.5%.

Credit Suisse, Novartis, Roche Holding, Zurich Insurance Group and Swisscom also closed weak.

On the other hand, ABB moved up 2.85% after the company reported better-than-expected results for the April to June period.

Givaudan ended nearly 1.5% up, while SGS and Nestle gained 1.16% and 1%, respectively.

Among midcap stocks, Dufry, Flughafen Zurich, Georg Fischer and Lindt & Sp Ps lost 2.4 to 3.1%. Schindler Holding shed 1.4%, while Schindler Ps, BB Biotech, Swiss Prime Site, Lindt & Spruengli and Barry Callebaut lost 0.6 to 1.1%.

Among the gainers in midcap section, Julius Baer climbed more than 3%. Temenos group ended nearly 2.5% up. Logitech gained 1.6%

Sunrise Communications, AMS, Kuehne & Nagel and Dorma Kaba Holding gained 1.4 to 2%. VAT Group, Straumann Holding and Bucher Industries also closed higher.