Swiss Market Settles Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - The Switzerland stock market ended notably lower on Friday, weighed down by fading possibilities of a rate cut in the U.S. and on profit taking after recent gains.

The benchmark SMI ended down 86.26 points, or 0.86%, at 9,980.22, after opening at 10,071.70, which was its high for the session.

The index had hit a record high of 10,091.48 a couple of sessions ago.

Adecco declined by about 4.2% and ABB ended lower by 3.2%. Sika and SGS shed about 2% and 1.7%, respectively.

Givaudan, Swiss Life Holding, Novartis, Swiss Re, Alcon, Swisscom, Richemont, LafargeHolcim, Lonza Group, Nestle, Roche Holding and Zurich Insurance lost 0.5 to 1.2%.

Credit Suisse and UBS Group bucked the trend and closed higher by 0.9% and 0.4%, respectively.

In the midcap section, Schindler Holding, AMS, Clariant and Straumann Holding lost 3 to 3.3%.

According to a report released this morning, forex reserves in Switzerland decreased to CHF 759.07 billion in June from CHF 759.11 billion in May of 2019.

Stock markets across Europe ended lower on Friday after data released by the U.S. Labor Department showed employment surged up by 224,000 jobs in June after edging up by a downwardly revised 72,000 jobs in May.

Economists had expected employment to increase by about 160,000 jobs compared to the addition of 75,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The stronger-than-expected jobs growth has dampened possibilities of an interest rate cut in the U.S. this month.