The Swiss Stock Markets Finished Wednesday's Volatile Session Lower

(RTTNews) - The Swiss stock market ended Wednesday's volatile trading session in negative territory. The market was positive in early trade, after Turkey's central bank announced aggressive rate hikes overnight, easing concerns over emerging markets.

However, the markets reversed direction in the afternoon, as investors shifted their focus to the announcement from the Federal Reserve later today. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to further scale back its unprecedented bond buying plan at the end of its two-day meeting. Most economists believe the Fed will trim its purchases by about $10 billion to $65 billion per month.

The Swiss Market Index declined by 0.62 percent Wednesday and finished at 8,135.81. The market hit an intraday high of 8,249 and a low of 8,080 points. The Swiss Leader Index dropped by 0.66 percent and the Swiss Performance Index lost 0.58 percent.

Shares of index heavyweight Novartis were in focus Wednesday, following the release of its annual results. The stock ended the session unchanged. Roche dropped by 1.1 percent and Nestle fell by 0.6 percent.

UBS declined by 1.3 percent Wednesday and Credit Suisse lost 0.6 percent. Swiss Life also finished lower by 0.8 percent. Transocean dropped by 2.3 percent, after some negative comments from Barclays. Syngenta decreased by 1.3 percent, after its price target was lowered by both Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.