BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The Swiss stock market ended Wednesday's session with a modest gain. The market rose to a new intraday high for the year, at 9,318.04 points, this afternoon. The strong performance from index heavyweights Nestlé and Roche provided a boost to the rest of the market.
The Swiss Market Index increased by 0.43 percent Wednesday and finished at 9,309.61. The Swiss Leader Index climbed 0.40 percent and the Swiss Performance Index added 0.45 percent.
Nestlé advanced 1.0 percent and Novartis rose 0.7 percent. Meanwhile, shares of Roche fell 0.50 percent. Citigroup downgraded its rating on the stock to 'Neutral' and removed the stock from its Focus List.
Adecco was the top performing stock of the session, climbing 1.3 percent. Aryzta followed close behind, with a gain of 1.2 percent.
Richemont increased 1.1 percent and rival Swatch added 0.8 percent. Sika and SGS gained 0.9 percent each, while Vifor Pharma, LafargeHolcim and Kuehne + Nagel all climbed by 0.8 percent each.
Dufry was among the weakest performers of the session, falling 1.4 percent. Lonza weakned by 0.4 percent and Zurich Insurance lost 0.2 percent.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX