The Swiss Stock Market Pulled Back As Novartis Weakens Further

(RTTNews) - The Swiss stock market ended Friday's session with a modest loss. After a positive start, the market quickly slipped into negative territory and never reemerged. The continued weakness in shares of index heavyweight Novartis pressured the overall market.

The Swiss Market Index decreased by 0.29 percent Friday and finished at 8,807.80. The Swiss Leader Index dropped 0.04 percent and the Swiss Performance Index lost 0.24 percent.

Novartis sank 1.6 percent Friday. Shares of the pharma giant had weakened by 1.9 percent the previous day, following the release of its disappointing first quarter results.

The rest of the index heavyweights all finished in the red Friday. Roche surrendered 0.4 percent and Nestle lost 0.3 percent.

Sika was another notable decliner at the end of the trading week, falling 1.1 percent. Adecco weakened by 0.6 percent and SGS lost 0.4 percent.

Swisscom was among the best performing stocks of the session, climbing 1.5 percent. Swatch also gained 1.5 percent, while rival Richemont fell 0.6 percent.

Credit Suisse and UBS increased 0.5 percent each, and Julius Baer rose 0.6 percent.