Swiss Market Ends On Firm Note As Trade Worries Fade

(RTTNews) - The Swiss stock market ended on a firm note on Friday as trade worries eased a bit after U.S. President Donald Trump said he remains hopeful of a U.S.-China trade deal.

Trump said there is a "good possibility" of including Huawei in a trade deal to end the U.S.-China trade conflict and added that he looks forward to seeing the Chinese Premier Xi Jinping at the G20 shortly.

The benchmark SMI ended up 72.58 points, or 0.76%, at 9,666.89, about 22 points off the day's high of 9,688.86.

On Thursday, the index ended down 50.73 points, or 0.53%, at 9,594.31.

Novartis ended stronger by about 3%. Swiss Life Holding gained 2.1%. Swiss Re, Zurich Insurance Co. and Adecco moved up by 1 to 1.7%.

Lonza Group, Richemont, Roche Holding and Givaudan ended with modest gains.

According to a report in Bloomberg, the bank has drawn up a shortlist of internal as well as external candidates to select a new CEO.

Sika edged down marginally. The company announced that it has completed acquisition of Parex.

Julius Baer shares declined by about 1.3%. The bank said that assets under management rose 12% in January - April 2019 to a record 427 billion Swiss francs.

Most of the markets across Europe ended with strong gains. The pan European Stoxx 600 ended higher by 0.56%. Among the major indices in Europe, Germany's DAX advanced 0.49%, the U.K.'s FTSE ended 0.65% up and France's CAC 40 added 0.67%.