The Swiss Stock Market Finished With A Modest Decline Friday

(RTTNews) - The Swiss stock market ended Friday's trading session with a small loss. However, the market pared its losses in late trading, following the release of the weaker than expected U.S. consumer sentiment data.

The U.S. weekly jobless claims data released yesterday renewed investor fears that the Federal Reserve could begin tapering its stimulus measures as early as its next 2-day policy meeting, which begins on September 17.

The Swiss Market Index declined by 0.26 percent Friday and finished at 7.961.31 The SMI finished the overall trading week with a gain of 0.2 percent. The Swiss Leader Index fell by 0.15 percent Friday and the Swiss Performance Index lost 0.36 percent.

The weak performance of the index heavyweights pressured the overall market on Friday. Novartis dropped by 0.9 percent and Roche lost 0.5 percent. Shares of Nestle also declined by 0.6 percent.

Financial stocks were largely positive at the end of the trading week. Credit Suisse increased by 1.2 percent and UBS added 0.9 percent. However, Julius Baer fell by 0.7 percent. Baloise advanced by 0.3 percent and Swiss Life gained 0.1 percent.