Swiss Market Ends Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - Swiss stocks reeled under sustained selling pressure on Friday, in line with major markets across Europe, as rising geopolitical tensions and uncertainty about the outlook for Fed interest rate weighed on sentiment.

The benchmark SMI, which stayed well down in negative territory right through the day's session, ended with a loss of 195.34 points or 1.67% at 11,495.79.

All the components of SMI ended in negative territory. Richemont, Novartis and Roche Holding lost 2.76%, 2.47% and 2.4%, respectively. Nestle, Logitech International and Swiss Re ended lower by 1.67 to 2%.

UBS Group, Sika, ABB, Sonova, Zurich Insurance Group, Kuehne & Nagel and Swisscom drifted down 1 to 1.4%.

Among the stocks in the Mid Price Index, Julius Baer, Swatch Group and Temenos Group lost 2 to 2.2%. BKW, Adecco, Avolta, Clariant, Helvetia, Flughafen Zurich, ams OSRAM AG, PSP Swiss Property, Galenica Sante and Ems Chemie Holding ended lower by 0.7 to 1.6%.

Meyer Burger Tech, VAT Group, Georg Fischer and Lindt & Spruengli settled higher.

In economic news, survey results from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) showed Swiss consumer confidence improved in March to the highest level in eight months.

The consumer confidence index rose to -38.0 in March from -42.3 in the previous month. Despite this further improvement, the consumer sentiment index remained below the long-term average.