The Swiss Stock Market Extended Yesterday's Losses

(RTTNews) - The Swiss stock market ended Wednesday's session in the red, extending the weakness of the previous trading day. The market quickly fell below the 8,700 point level and came close to breaking the 8,600 point level in the afternoon, before staging a bit of a recovery.

Commodity prices recovered some ground today, after sustaining heavy losses in recent days. However, investors remain cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting next week. The Fed is expected to announce an interest rate hike at the meeting. Traders are also looking ahead to the SNB meeting tomorrow.

The Swiss Market Index dropped 0.88 percent Wednesday and finished at 8,624.95. The SMI hit an intraday los of 8,604 points. The Swiss Leader Index declined 0.68 percent and the Swiss Performance Index lost 0.85 percent.

Despite a larger than expected increase in Chinese inflation data, luxury goods companies extended yesterday's weakness. Swatch decreased 1.8 percent and Richemont fell 0.8 percent.

The index heavyweights all finished to the downside Wednesday. Novartis declined 1.2 percent and Roche surrendered 1.1 percent. Shares of Nestle also weakened by 1.1 percent.

Galenica was among the weakest performing stocks, with a loss of 2.8 percent. Lonza fell 1.4 percent and Schindler lost 1.2 percent.

Syngenta increased 1.7 percent, thanks to takeover speculation in the agricultural chemicals sector. According to media reports, DuPont is involved in advanced merger talks with Dow Chemical. The news fueled speculation that a deal between Syngenta and Monsanto could still be possible.