The Swiss Stock Market Rallied Higher On Pharma Strength

(RTTNews) - The Swiss stock market ended Wednesday's session with a significant increase. The market posted only a slight increase on Tuesday, when the rest of Europe was in rally mode. The strong performance of the Swiss pharma heavyweights provided a boost to the overall market today. Shares of Syngenta were also in focus after the company's earnings report.

The Swiss Market Index climbed by 1.85 percent Wednesday and finished at 8,608.24. The Swiss Leader Index rose by 1.67 percent and the Swiss Performance Index gained 1.72 percent.

Syngenta was the top performing stock of the day, with an increase of 3.9 percent. The agro-chemical company's full year 2014 profit was down slightly from a year ago, but exceeded expectations. The company also announced a 10 percent dividend increase.

The index heavyweight all finished solidly to the upside Wednesday, particularly the pharma giants. Roche increased by 2.6 percent and Novartis gained 2.3 percent. Roche reported positive study results for Gazyva, a treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Shares of Nestle also climbed by 1.1 percent.

Swatch ended Wednesday's session higher by 2.9 percent and rival Richemont gained 2.4 percent. Sika and Givaudan both climbed by 2.6 percent. However, Transocean dropped by 2.4 percent as oil prices pulled back from a recent rally.

Financial stocks also turned in a positive performance. Credit Suisse climbed by 1.2 percent and UBS added 2.5 percent. Julius Baer also finished up by 1.5 percent.