Swiss Market Ends On Firm Note

(RTTNews) - The Switzerland stock market ended on a firm note on Friday, recovering from recent losses. Some strong quarterly results and hopes about monetary easing by the Federal Reserve next week aided sentiment.

The benchmark SMI ended up 91.05 points, or 0.92%, at 9,968.08, after rising to a high of 10,001.66 in early afternoon trades. The index touched a low of 9,891.01 in the season.

On Thursday, the SMI shed 0.31%, after declining 0.58% a session earlier.

Roche Holding shares gained nearly 2%. Nestle gained about 1.75% after the company reported strong second-quarter sales growth.

SGS, Adecco and Richemont gained 1.5 to 1.7%. Novartis ended 1.15% up.

Alcon, Swisscom, Geberit and ABB advanced 0.7 to 1%. Swiss Re ended higher by about 0.45%.

Sika declined more than 2% UBS Group, Credit Suisse, Lonza Group and LafargeHolcim gained 0.4 to 0.9%.

Among the stocks in Swiss Mid Price Index, Clariant climbed up 4.4%, after suffering a setback in the previous session. Sunrise Communications, AMS and Ems Chemie Holding ended higher by 1.1 to 1.6%.

Barry Callebaut, Georg Fischer, Temenos Group, OC Oerlikon, Schindler Holding, BB Biotech, Dufry and Lindt & Sp closed with modest gains.

Shares of Asmallworld AG zoomed more than 36% after the company said it expects a 40% revenue increase in the first half-year and confirmed its full-year revenue guidance.

Bellevue Group shares gained about 1% after the company increased first-half net profit 23% to 14.2 million Swiss francs.