Swiss Market Ends Sharply Lower

(RTTNews) - Save for a very brief while at the start, the Switzerland market remained in negative territory on Wednesday, amid concerns about economic growth and caution ahead of monetary policy announcements from major central banks, including the Federal Reserve and the Swiss National Bank.

While the Fed's announcement is due later in the day, the Swiss central bank is scheduled to announce its monetary policy on Thursday. The European Central Bank and the Bank of England are also slated to announce their rate decisions tomorrow.

The Swiss National Bank is widely expected to leave rates unchanged.

The benchmark SMI ended down by 196.93 points or 1.52% at 12,765.48, off the day's low of 12,723.11.

Logitech International tumbled by more than 6% after UBS downgraded the stock to "neutral" from "buy" rating, and cut its 12-month price target to CHF80 from CHF88.

Nestle ended down by 3.55% and Lindt & Spruengli closed 3% down.

Sonova and Roche holding lost 2.9% and 2.81%, respectively. Alcon, Swisscom, Novartis, Straumann Holding and Lonza Group ended lower by 1.4%-2.1%.

Givaudan, Zurich Insurance, Geberit, SGS, Sandoz Group, Julius Baer, Schindler Ps and Helvetia Baloise Holding lost 0.5%-1%.

VAT Group climbed about 1.8%. ABB and Holcim gained 1.4% and 1%, respectively. Kuehne + Nagel and Partners Group also closed higher.