BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The Switzerland stock market ended sharply lower on Thursday as the mood turned bearish amid worries over U.S.-China trade tensions.
After snapping a four-session losing streak on Wednesday, the benchmark SMI tumbled and ended the session sharply lower today.
The index, which opened nearly 30 points down, ended the session with a loss of 191.66 points, or 1.99%, at 9,430.30, slightly off the day's low of 9,422.37.
On Wednesday, the SMI ended up 44.58 point, or 0.47%, at 9,621.96.
Credit Suisse ended lower by about 3.3%. UBS Group shed 3.1% and Richemont finished lower by 2.8%. Lonza Group and Adecco Group lost 2.6% and 2.4%, respectively.
Novartis ended down 2.2%. According to reports, Takeda Pharmaceutical agreed to sell its dry eye drug to Novartis for $3.4 billion and potential milestone payments of up to $1.9 billion, in the first divestment since its takeover of Britain's Shire.
Novartis announced today that its Sandoz unit received generic approval for Rosuvastatin from China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA).
LafargeHolcim and ABB also lost more than 2%. Geberit ended nearly 2% down. Swatch Group, Swiss Re, Sika and Givaudan lost 1.8 - 1.9%.
Zurich Insurance Group shares also lost about 1.7%. The insurer reported that premiums at its property and casualty and life insurance businesses declined in the first quarter, but said that it is on track to meet or beat its financial targets for 2017 to 2019.
Swiss Life Holding lost more than 1% despite reporting a 44% increase in premiums in the first quarter.
Alcon, which rose 0.78%, was the lone gainer in the SMI index.
AMS, Georg Fischer, Logitech International and Juliur Baer were among the prominent losers in the midcap section.
Among the other major markets in Europe, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 closed lower by 1.69% and 1.93%, respectively. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 shed 0.87%. The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down 1.64%.
Trade tensions have increased after Trump claimed during a rally in Florida on Wednesday that the U.S. is planning to raise tariffs on Chinese goods because China 'broke the deal.'
'So they're flying in, the vice premier tomorrow is flying in - good man - but they broke the deal,' Trump told his supporters. 'They can't do that, so they'll be paying.'
The comments from Trump come as Chinese Vice Premier Liu He is set to take part in the latest round of trade talks as officials from the world's two largest economies attempt to reach an historic trade agreement.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
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