The Swiss Stock Market Slipped Into The Red After Late Day Sell-Off

(RTTNews) - The Swiss stock market ended Tuesday's session with a modest decrease. After a solid start, the market began to pare its early gains and slipped into negative territory late in the afternoon, following the weak opening on Wall Street. However, today's action was relatively quiet in comparison to yesterday's turbulent session.

The outlook for U.S. interest rates remains the dominant topic of discussion among traders. Federal Reserve board member Lael Brainard made some dovish comments, which was in contrast to the hawkish comments of other Fed officials in recent days. The Fed has no entered a quiet period ahead of its policy meeting next week.

The Swiss Market Index decreased 0.38 percent Tuesday and finished at 8,174.73. The Swiss Leader Index dropped 0.37 percent and the Swiss Performance Index lost 0.30 percent.

The luxury goods companies were the top performing stocks of the session. The stocks benefitted from several stronger than expected economic reports from China, including industrial production and retail sales. Swatch climbed 2.0 percent and Richemont gained 1.5 percent.

Shares of ABB increased 0.5 percent. Cevian, a major shareholder in the company, reiterated its call for the spin-off of ABB's Power Grids unit. Also among the cyclicals, Sika and Clariant both rose 0.4 percent.

Lonza slipped 0.1 percent after it completed its acquisition of US company Inter Nutraceuticals.

Adecco dropped 1.4 percent, although there was no news to drive the stock lower. Swiss Life, Swiss Re and flavors and fragrances manufacturer Givaudan all finished the day lower by 1.1 percent.

Credit Suisse decreased 0.8 percent and UBS surrendered 0.9 percent. Shares of Julius Baer also dipped 0.1 percent.

The index heavyweights all finished in the red. Roche slipped 0.1 percent and Novartis weakened by 0.3 percent. Nestlé also forfeited 0.7 percent.

In the broad market, Partners Group soared 8.4 percent after its earnings for the first half of the year exceeded expectations.