The Swiss stock market rallied higher on Thursday, with the rest of the European markets. The rallied was triggered by comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, who said the bank is prepared to take whatever measures needed to preserve the euro.
Draghi's comments provided a boost to the Euro and helped to ease the record high yields on Spanish and Italian government bonds. The markets received further support from some better than expected economic reports from the U.S.
The Swiss Market Index climbed by 1.57 percent Thursday and finished at 6,277.74. The Swiss Leader Index surged by 1.82 percent and the Swiss Performance Index gained 1.45 percent.
Financial stocks benefitted from the comments made by Draghi. UBS gained 2.7 percent, Swiss Life climbed by 3.0 percent and Swiss Re rose by 2.2 percent.
ABB was one of the top gainers on Thursday, rising by 5.2 percent. The company's earnings and sales report was viewed positively and the wording for the short-term outlook sounded slightly more optimistic than it had been 3 months ago.
by RTT Staff Writer
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