Despite opening on a strong note, the Switzerland stock market faltered in the first hour of the session on Tuesday and spent the rest of the day moving along the flat line before eventually settling marginally down.
Activity was largely stock specific with earnings reports and other corporate new providing some directions. Worries about the economic impact of rising coronavirus cases and tighter lockdown restrictions in some places weighed on stocks.
The benchmark SMI, which rose to 10,944.88 at the start, ended the session with a loss of 11.56 points or 0.11% at 10,876.98, slightly off the day's low of 10,869.43.
Richemont shares ended lower by about 2.5%. Credit Suisse and UBS Group both ended lower by nearly 1.5%. LafargeHolcim shed 1.17%, while Swiss Re, Sika, Swisscom, SGS and Nestle lost 0.6 to 1%.
Alcon shares gained nearly 2%. Roche Holdings gained about 1%, while Novartis ended 0.6% up.
Logitech plunged nearly 6.5%, failing to hold early gains. The stock rose sharply in early trades after the computer peripherals maker raised its annual forecasts for the third time and reported a nearly three-fold jump in quarterly adjusted operating income.
Lindt & Spruengli ended lower by 5.3%, while OC Oerlikon Corp, Dufry, Georg Fischer, PSP Swiss Property, Flughafen Zurich, Clariant, Addeco, Barry Callebaut and Swiss Prime Site lost 1 to 2.5%.
On the other hand, Temenos Group gained 3.3%, Tecan Group ended 2.2% up and SIG Combibloc gained nearly 2%. BB Biotech advanced nearly 1%.
In economic news, Switzerland's producer and import prices decreased 2.3% year-on-year in December.data from the Federal Statistical Office showed.
The producer price index decreased 1.2% annually in December and import prices decreased 4.5%. On a monthly basis, producer and import prices rose 0.5% in December.
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