Big Banks, Drug Makers Lead Swiss Shares Lower For Second Day

(RTTNews) - Swiss shares continued to edge lower Thursday, as big banks struggled for a second day in a row.

With health care majors Novartis and Roche and banks UBS and Credit Suisse under regulatory pressure elsewhere, the Swiss market underperformed lackluster equities around Europe.

The Swiss Market Index lost 41 points, or 0.47 percent, to 8,670.98, falling further from record highs near 8,770.

Tokyo prosecutors raided the Japanese unit of Novartis AG on suspicion of manipulating data. Shares fell 0.5 percent.

UBS lost 1.6 percent and rival bank Julius Baer fell nearly 1 percent.

SGS dropped 2 percent after its CEO said currency strength will weigh on full-year sales.

Syngenta lost another 1 percent on the extension of a Chinese ban on American animal feed.

Myriad jumped 17.5 percent. The mobile software maker has released a new version of its chat and short message service "msngr" on the market.