Swiss Market Ends Slightly Weak

(RTTNews) - Save for a few minutes early on in the session, and a brief while in the final hour, the Switzerland market was down in negative territory on Friday as investors looked for fresh direction and largely refrained from making significant moves.

The benchmark SMI ended down 18.06 points or 0.16% at 11,191.89. The index touched a low of 11,154.64 and a high of 11,229.56 in the session.

Lonza Group climbed 2.8% and Kuehne & Nagel gained 2.35%, while Holcim, Sika, Givaudan, ABB and Swiss Life Holding ended higher by 0.6 to 1.25%.

Richemont drifted down 1.89%. UBS Group ended 1.16% down, while Novartis, Alcon, Swisscom and Roche Holding closed lower by 0.6 to 1%.

In the Mid Price Index, Tecan Group ended stronger by 2.76%. Meyer Burger Tech and Julius Baer gained 2.14% and 2.02%, respectively.

Georg Fischer, Temenos Group, Ems Chemie Holding, Barry Callebaut and VAT Group gained 0.8 to 1.25%.

Flughafen Zurich ended down 1.84%. ams OSRAM AG, Avolta, SGS, Swatch Group, Galenica Sante and Sandoz ended lower by 1 to 1.4%.