Swiss Market Pares Early Gains, Ends Notably Lower

(RTTNews) - After holding in positive territory till more than a couple of hours past noon, the Switzerland stock market slipped into the red on Tuesday after U.S. inflation data raised fears that the Fed might be aggressive with interest rate hike at its upcoming meeting next week.

The benchmark SMI ended with a loss of 99.21 points or 0.9% at 10,891.54, falling nearly 200 points from the day's high of 11,083.49.

Sika and Lonza Group dropped 5.9% and 5.4%, respectively. Partners Group, Givaudan, Credit Suisse and Geberit shed 3.46 to 3.9%, and Logitech ended 2.74% down.

ABB, Richemont, Alcon and Holcim also ended notably lower.

Zurich Insurance Group and UBS Group gained about 1% and 0.7%, respectively. Nestle, Roche Holding and Swisscom edged up marginally.

Among the stocks in the Swiss Mid Price Index, Zur Rose tanked more than 9%. Straumann Holding declined 6.7% and AMS ended 5.2% down, while VAT Group and Ems Chemie Holding both ended lower by about 4.5%.

Bachem Holding, Sonova, Adecco, Schindler Ps, Schindler Holding, Temenos Group and Clariant were among the other major losers.

On the economic front, Switzerland's producer and import price inflation eased for the second successive month in August, data from the Federal Statistical Office showed.

Producer and import prices rose 5.5% year-on-year in August, slower than the 6.3% increase in July. Further, this was the weakest rate of increase since January last year, when prices had grown 5.4%.

The producer price index climbed 3.8% annually in August, following a 4.1% rise in the previous month. Import prices increased 8.9% from last year.

On a monthly basis, producer and import prices dropped 0.1% in August, linked to lower prices for petroleum products, basic metals and semi-finished metal products.