The Swiss Stock Market Dropped & Extended Losing Streak To 3 Weeks

(RTTNews) - The Swiss stock market ended Friday's session with a significant loss. The market dropped late in the morning and accelerated further in the afternoon, hitting an intraday low of 8,477 points. The SMI ended with a loss for the week, making this its third down week in a row. This week's loss was even more pronounced than a week ago.

Concerns over the global economy weighed on investor sentiment at the end of the week. Continued weakness in commodity prices, especially oil prices, has investors feeling nervous. Traders were also worried about China, ahead of the release of some important economic reports this weekend. Investors are also looking ahead to next week's Federal Reserve meeting and the interest rate hike that is widely anticipated will be announced.

The Swiss Market Index decreased 1.51 percent Friday and finished at 8,502.06. The SMI ended the trading week with an overall loss of 3.4 percent. The Swiss Leader Index dropped 1.71 percent Friday and the Swiss Performance Index fell 1.46 percent.

Syngenta declined 0.7 percent. The stock has been climbing on takeover speculation for the past two sessions. Reports that DuPont and Dow Chemical were involved in merger talks fueled speculation that Monsanto may make another attempt to acquire Syngenta. DuPont and Dow Chemical announced today that they have agreed to a merger of equals.

Financial stocks were under pressure Friday. Julius Baer dropped 4.6 percent and Credit Suisse fell 3.5 percent. UBS also finished lower by 2.8 percent. Bank stocks were weak across the board in Europe today.

Adecco weakened by 2.3 percent and Lonza surrendered 2.6 percent. Transocean tumbled 3.5 percent due to falling crude oil prices. The International Energy Agency warned that the global supply glut would continue into the New Year.

Swatch decreased 3.4 percent and Richemont lost 2.4 percent. Bernstein lowered its price target on the stocks today.

The index heavyweights all finished solidly to the downside. Novartis and Roche both dropped 0.9 percent each and Nestle closed lower by 1.7 percent.