The Swiss Stock Market Retreated On Fed Tapering Fears

(RTTNews) - The Swiss stock market ended Tuesday's session solidly in negative territory. The better than expected U.S. manufacturing data released yesterday sparked concerns of an imminent reduction in asset purchases by the Federal Reserve.

Investors were also cautious ahead of the announcements from the policy meetings of both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England on Thursday. Investors will be watching for the release of the U.S. GDP data on Thursday and the U.S. jobs report for November on Friday.

The Swiss Market Index declined by 1.79 percent Tuesday and finished at 8,109.89. The Swiss Leader Index dropped by 1.89 percent and the Swiss Performance Index lost 1.71 percent.

Julius Baer lost 3.3 percent, after Nomura downgraded it to "Neutral" from "Buy." Credit Suisse declined by 2.3 percent and UBS fell by 3.2 percent. Zurich Insurance decreased by 1.9 percent and Swiss Re lost 2.2 percent, despite price target increases from Barclays. Swiss Life dropped by 1.7 percent and Baloise lost 0.9 percent.

Sonova fell by 1.8 percent, after Morgan Stanley downgraded it to "Equal weight" from "Overweight."

The index heavyweights all finished in negative territory. Roche sank by 2.2 percent and Novartis fell by 1.3 percent. Nestle also dropped by 1.0 percent.