The Swiss Stock Market Finished With A Modest Loss

(RTTNews) - The Swiss stock market ended the final trading day of 2016 with a small loss. The market got off to a weak start Friday and slipped beneath 8,200 points. The market staged a bit of a recovery in the afternoon and briefly broke through into positive territory, before slipping back into the red.

Trading activity remained rather subdued ahead of the upcoming New Year's holiday. Markets in Germany and the U.K. closed early Friday. Investors have already shifted their focus to 2017. Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the new President of the United States in January and upcoming elections in Germany and France will be closely watched.

The Swiss Market Index decreased 0.38 percent Friday and finished at 8,219.87. The SMI ended the trading week with an overall loss of 0.2 percent and finished the year with a loss of 6.8 percent. The Swiss Leader Index fell 0.31 percent Friday and the Swiss Performance Index lost 0.29 percent.

Syngenta and Actelion each ended the session with a loss of 1.1 percent. The takeover talks between U.S. company Johnson & Johnson and Actelion continue. Media reports yesterday suggested that the separation of Actelion's commercial activities from the research and development pipeline are being negotiated.

The index heavyweights all finished in negative territory Friday. Roche dropped 0.6 percent and Novartis surrendered 0.5 percent. Shares of Nestlé also finished lower by 0.3 percent.

Bank stocks were also under pressure at the end of the trading week. Julius Baer declined 0.6 percent, Credit Suisse weakened by 0.2 percent and UBS dipped 0.1 percent. Credit Suisse was the weakest performer of the year, with a loss of 29 percent. UBS dropped 18 percent for the year and Galenica sank 27 percent.

Actelion was the top performing stock of the year, with a gain of 58 percent. Sika climbed 35 percent for the year, while ABB rose 25 percent and Geberit added 20 percent.