The Swiss Stock Market Finished Little Changed Ahead Of Fed Minutes

(RTTNews) - The Swiss stock market ended Wednesday's session with a very slight decrease, but was little changed overall. Despite the slight dip, the market remains only about 25 points below the new high for the year, which was set last Friday.

Tensions in Spain have eased after Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont refrained from making a formal declaration of the region's independence yesterday. However, traders remained in a cautious mood ahead of the release of the minutes from the most recent meeting of the Federal Reserve.

The Swiss Market Index decreased by 0.02 percent Wednesday and closed at 9,265.34. The Swiss Leader Index fell 0.04 percent, but the Swiss Performance Index rose 0.01 percent.

The index heavyweights turned in a mixed performance. Shares of Novartis climbed 0.4 percent, while Roche fell 0.2 percent and Nestlé lost 0.1 percent.

Lonza was among the top performing stocks of the session, with an increase of 1.6 percent. Swiss Re gained 0.7 percent after it was upgraded by Exane BNP to "Neutral" from "Underperform."

Clariant advanced 0.7 percent, while Logitech and Swisscom each gained 0.6 percent.

The financial stocks were under pressure Wednesday. Julius Baer weakened by 0.8 percent, Credit Suisse dropped 0.6 percent and UBS lost 0.3 percent.

Aryzta and LafargeHolcim declined 1.1 percent each, while Kuehne + Nagel surrendered 0.7 percent.

Swatch slid 0.4 percent after Morgan Stanley reaffirmed its "Underweight" rating on the stock.