BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The Swiss stock market saw largely directionless trade through mush of Tuesday's session, bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line before fading late in the day to end firmly in the red.
Early momentum was provided when it was reported that U.S. biotechnology company Moderna, Inc. said it concluded advanced talks to provide 80 million doses of its experimental coronavirus shot to the European Union.
The SMI dropped 77.14 points or 0.75 percent to finish at the daily low of 10,231.25 after peaking at 10,346.73.
Among the actives, Adecco plummeted 1.86 percent, while Swisscom sank 1.70 percent, Lafarge Holcim retreated 1.43 percent, Swiss Life dropped 1.07 percent, Swatch Group and Nestle both lost 0.92 percent, UBS Group shed 0.45 percent, Zurich Insurance skidded 0.26 percent and Novartis and Swiss Re both slipped 0.19 percent.
The weakness was mostly in line with the other European markets, which couldn't hold early gains as they looked ahead to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's highly anticipated speech at the Jackson Hole symposium on Thursday.
Germany's DAX eased 4.92 points or 0.04 percent to 13,061.62, while London's FTSE tumbled 67.72 points or 1.11 percent to 6,037.01 and the CAC 40 in France rose 0.38 points or 0.01 percent to 5,008.27.
On the corporate front, Credit Suisse (CS) said the company is taking further steps to streamline its business by merging NAB's (Neue Aargauer Bank AG) business with that of Credit Suisse in Canton Aargau by the end of this year.
The company's announced measures, including the planned merger of NAB with Credit Suisse, are anticipated to result in gross cost savings of around 100 million Swiss francs per annum from 2022 onwards.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2020 AFX News
