Swiss Market Fails To Hold Early Gains, Ends Marginally Down

(RTTNews) - The Switzerland market ended marginally down on Tuesday despite trading higher till a couple of hours past noon.

Investors digested the latest batch of economic data from the European region, and looked ahead to the release of Fed minutes, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech at Jackson Hole, due on Wednesday and Friday, respectively.

The benchmark SMI, which climbed to 12,324.15 around late morning, ended the session with a marginal loss of 8.68 points or 0.07% at 12,266.56, slightly off the day's low.

Swatch Group ended down 2.43%. Julius Baer, SIG Group, Nestle and Lindt & Spruengli lost 0.9 to 1.25%.

Straumann Holding ended 0.79% down. Sonova, Partners Group,Givaudan and Kuehne & Nagel ended modestly lower.

Lonza Group climbed about 1.2%. Swiss Re gained 1.05%, while VAT Group and Schindler Ps gained 0.71% and 0.52%, respectively. Roche Holding, Logitech International, Sika and Roche GS also closed higher.

In economic news, Switzerland's foreign trade surplus decreased in July amid a continued fall in exports, data from the Federal Customs Administration showed.

The trade surplus dropped to CHF 4.1 billion in July from CHF 4.8 billion in June.

In real terms, exports declined 1.8% over the month, faster than the 0.2% fall in June. Meanwhile, imports remained flat in July, versus a 0.8% increase in June.