The Swiss Stock Market Fell Again With Novartis Shares Under Pressure

(RTTNews) - The Swiss stock market ended Wednesday's session in the red again, extending its losing streak to five sessions. Weakness in the index heavyweights again weighed on the overall market. The market did manage to pare some of its losses going into the close, as crude oil prices began to recover.

Investors were in a foul mood after they learned that German consumer confidence is set to weaken to a 7-month low in November. Some disappointing US earnings reports, particularly that of tech giant Apple, also contributed to the negative mood.

The Swiss Market Index decreased 0.47 percent Wednesday and finished at 7,892.77. The Swiss Leader Index fell 0.28 percent and the Swiss Performance Index lost 0.39 percent.

Index heavyweight Novartis dropped 1.9 percent. The stock was under heavy pressure on Tuesday, following its financial report. Shares of Roche also weakened by 0.7 percent. The pharmaceutical companies were also under pressure due to the results reported by Germany's Bayer.

SGS declined 1.3 percent and Julius Baer surrendered 1.2 percent. Sonova forfeited 0.9 percent and Syngenta fell 0.8 percent.

Clariant finished lower by 0.5 percent and Sika lost 0.4 percent. The companies are expected to report results on Thursday.

The top performing stock of the day was Bâloise with a gain of 1.1 percent. The company revealed that it intends to repurchase an additional 1 million shares of its outstanding shares.

Swiss Life increased 0.4 percent and Zurich Insurance added 0.1 percent. Credit Suisse climbed 1.0 percent and UBS rose 0.1 percent.

The luxury goods companies received a boost from the strong results reported by France's Kering. Swatch gained 0.3 percent and Richemont advanced 0.8 percent.

In the broad market, Logitech surged nearly 17 percent. The computer accessories manufacturer reported second quarter results that surpassed expectations.