The Switzerland stock market ended sharply lower on Wednesday, tracking weakness across Europe, amid persisting worries about growth due to spikes in coronavirus cases across the region.
The benchmark SMI, which edged up marginally to 10,159.70 at the start, ended the day with a loss of 156.48 points or 1.54% at 9,989.75, the session's low.
Roche Holding ended more than 2.5% down. SGS shed about 2.2% and Swatch Group lost nearly 2%.
Credit Suisse, Novartis, Swiss Re, Lonza Group, Swisscom, Alcon, Swiss Life Holding, Richemont and Geberit declined 1.5 to 1.8%. LafargeHolcim, Zurich Insurance Group, ABB, UBS Group and Partners Group also ended notably lower.
Nestle shed about 0.8%. The food-and-beverage giant has raised its full-year guidance for organic sales growth.
Among the losers in Swiss Mid Price Index, Vifor Pharma plunged more than 7% and Dufry ended lower by about 5%. Temenos Group slid 3.6%, while Helvetia, Lindt & Sp Ps, Swiss Prime Site, BB Biotech, Cembra Money Bank and Flughafen Zurich lost 2 to 2.8%.
Logitech, which ended with a big gain on Tuesday, closed with a loss of about 1.2%. Julius Baer shed about 1%, while Kuehne & Nagel and Adecco moved up 2.25% and 0.8%, respectively.
In Covid-19 news, Switzerland's health minister Alain Berset is reported to have said that coronavirus case counts and hospitalizations were doubling every week, warning of the prospect of overburdened hospitals as Switzerland has gone from one of the least-affected countries in Europe to one of the worst-hit in just three weeks.
His comments came after Switzerland reported a record 5,583 new cases over the latest 24 hours. The minister said the will act again if new restrictive measures announced over the weekend don't help lower the count.
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