The Swiss Stock Market Fell Thursday Due To U.S. Uncertainty

(RTTNews) - The Swiss stock market ended Thursday's session in negative territory. The market started in the day in the green and remained there for much of the session, but turned lower in the afternoon. The late day weakness was due to the release of some weak U.S. economic data and concerns over the continued U.S. government shutdown.

The partial shutdown of the U.S. government entered its third day Thursday with Democrats and Republicans still at odds over a budget, despite a meeting late yesterday between President Obama and top Congressional leaders. U.S. weekly jobless claims rose less than expected on Thursday, but the growth in the non-manufacturing index was weaker than anticipated.

The Swiss Market Index declined by 0.28 percent Thursday and finished at 7,942.50. The Swiss Leader Index fell by 0.30 percent and the Swiss Performance Index lost 0.25 percent.

The pharmaceutical heavyweights weakened on Thursday. Novartis decreased by 0.4 percent and Roche fell by 0.2 percent. Shares of Nestle closed unchanged.

The big banks also turned in a weak performance Thursday. Credit Suisse declined by 1.2 percent and UBS lost 1.1 percent. Julius Baer also finished down by 1.0 percent.

Biotechnology firm Addex surged by 5.8 percent. The company said its ADX71441 dose dependently reduced PMP22 expression, comparable to baclofen in a preclinical transgenic model of Charcot-Marie-Tooth 1A disease or CMT1A.